






i ^\ 



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THE EDWIN C. DINWIDDIE 

COLLECTION OF BOOKS ON 

TEMPERANCE AND ALLIED SUBJECTS 

(PRESENTED BY MRS. DINWIDDIE) 



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A 

FOBTT YEARS' FIGHT 



DEINK DEMON, 



A HISTORY OF THE TEJ^IPERANCE REFORM AS 
I HAVE SEEN IT, 



MY LABOR IN CONNECTION THEREWITH. 



CHARLES JEWETT, M. D. 



NEW YORK: 

NATIONAL TEMPERANCE SOCIETY AND PUBLISHING HOUSE, 

58 Readb Street. 

1882. 



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Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by 

CHAELES JEWETT, M. D., 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 



PREFACE 



Had the temperance enterprise, commenced substantially in 1826, 
received from the American people a support, financial and other- 
■wise, commensurate with its importance, and been prosecuted on 
the plan adopted by its originators, the promise which its early and 
wonderful successes gave of a speedy triumph would have been 
realizedi and this volume would not have been given to the public, 
but in place thereof, its author, or some fellow-laborer, would have 
published, ere this, a more ample and worthy history of one of the 
grandest achievements of this nineteenth century. 

The consummation of this great and needful work has been pre- 
vented by a concurrence of causes not generally understood, because 
not carefully studied ; the study, unlike most others, bringing no 
present and promising no future pecuniary reward. 

First among the causes referred to, I must place the strange and 
deplorable mistakes of our American churches, in the aggregate, 
which, with a few notable exceptions, have busied themselves with 
matters having generally a far less direct bearing on their own or 
the world's welfare, rather than in worthy and direct efforts to crush 
their own worst enemy, whose wounded and reeling victims meet us 
in our streets as we walk to our houses of worship — and, worse still, 
whose marked and doomed ones often look up from the cushioned 
pews of magnificent churches, into the faces of our Christian teach- 
ers while they are eloquently urging us to put forth efforts for the 



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W PREFACE. 

salvation of men in Burmah or Hindostan. But something worse 
than mistakes have hindered the progress of the cause. 

The too general and criminal indifference of our best educated 
and influential classes to the just claims of the temperance enter- 
prise, in years that have past, has permitted it to form unnatural 
associations, to take questionable forms, and its honest and earnest 
friends sometimes to mistake and adopt harmful expedients ; and 
now, when we appeal for aid to those classes, they point us to our 
past mistakes anxl.-the imperfection of our present arrangements, as 
a justification oi their continued neglect. As one of the many de- 
plorable results of such a course, thousands and tens of thousands 
of^the classes complained of, will pay the penalty of their folly in 
the ruin\-of^their sons. 

When and how have occurred the mistakes I deplore, the reader 
will learn by the joerusal of the following chapters. It is not too 
late to correct the errors of the past. Ten years, perhaps less, 
of wisely directed, properly sustained, and persistent effort, on the 
part of the aggregate Christianity of this country, would be ample 
to complete the grandest work ever committed to any generation 
since the commencement of the Christian era. 

The general and thorough education of all our teachable people 
in relation to the nature and use of intoxicating elements — the en- 
tire abolition of the drinking usages of society and what would in- 
evitably and directly follow, the suppression by law of the traffic in 
those substances, as thoroughly as other crimes against society are 
suppressed, would be fraught with more blessings to our country 
than any or all those products of inventive genius and mechanical 
skill which have distinguished the present century, splendid and 
beneficent as they are. 

We have some reasons to fear that a stern and general grapple 
with the great scourge of modern civilization calls for a larger 
measure of courage, self-denial, and consecration to God and the 



PREFACE. V 

best interests of man, than the present generation seems likely to 
furnish. If so, the work of demoralization and ruin wrought always 
by the general use of intoxicants, will go on for the present, and 
the triumph of the temperance enterprise will be reserved for a 
wiser, more self-denying, and courageous generation. 

It was no part of my purpose in the production of this work, to 
give a general history of the temperance reform in this country, or 
to assign to all who have distinguished themselves in connection 
with it their just meed of praise for the good work they have done. 

The time has not arrived when such a work could be ^vritten with 
justice to al! parties concerned or profit to the great interests in- 
volved. Various expedients are now employed to secure increased 
attention to our views and measures, and to hasten the downfall of 
the liquor system, the value of which time alone can determine ; 
and many of the present and active promoters of the temperance 
reform will never be rightly estimated, until the work in which they 
are engaged be completed, or their mission on earth shall be ended. 

The undersigned is fully sensible that the facts of his personal 
history would be scarcely worth recording but for his intimate and 
almost life-long connection with one of the great reform movements 
of the age. The expressed belief of many friends that such a his- 
tory might interest and perhaps instruct my fellow-laborers, has led 
to the production of this volume. If its publication shall justify 
the expectations of my co-laborers and contribute, in any measure, 
to the advancement of the cause, I shall never regret its publica- 
tion, however it shall be regarded by those who look on our efforts 
only to criticise them. 

Let me not be misunderstood. I do not deprecate criticism, but 
the personal indolence and selfishness of those who make fault-find- 
ing their only contribution to a struggling enterprise. Reformatory 
movements are aggressive always, and those who labor in and for 
them are constantly attacking the opinions, customs, and habits of 



Tl PREFACE. 

others v/liicli they seek to change. They have therefore no right to 
complain of sharp criticism in return. For one, I ask no personal 
favors, as I never grant any where loyalty to the truth and the in- 
terests of humanity forbid. 

The Author. 



OOTvTTEIsrTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Incentives to the Battle — A sad state of things — A Uttle Light — 
Set on — Considering the matter — The Whipping Post — The first 
Blow — Signing the pledge — Rev. Dr. Hewitt — The Fathers — 
Missionary work with Pills — William Goodell — A blow from El- 
der Meech — My first Speech — What came of it — Pure Gold. 13 

CHAPTER H. 

Organization — A Commissary Department wanting — Little Money, 
but Rich — Ben Johnson cures the Doctor — Cider Experience — 
Out of the Scrape — Rhymes and Retailers — Still Rhyming — Ar- 
gumentum ad Hominem — The Winding Sheet — They Dislike but 
Patronize him. . 29 

CHAPTER HI. 
A Visitor — Thomas P. Hunt — Hie Speech at Aponaug — "An excel- 
lent sentiment, madam" — Facing the question — Yes or No ? — He 
loves but votes against it — A victory for Rum — An " Open 
House" — A song furnished gratis 41 

CHAPTER IV. 

A CONTROVEKSY. 

A " Plucky" Wholesaler — Retreating, he gets " a shell" — A Retailer 
hit — Rinsing the glasses — Providence Votes down the Traffic — 
A laughable incident — The way to do it — A shot that hit — En- 
listing a Sharp Shooter — He hits the "bull's eye" — " Crack up" — 
Shoot, but don't hurt folks — "Father Bonney's Prayer — First 

extemporaneous Speech 48 

(vii) 



Vlll CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER V. 

A COWARDLY ATTACK. 

" Smith's hat" — Giving up the lancet — My co-workers — A sick wife 
— Trouble — A visit to Boston — Dreaming in Rhyme — Laugh and 
be fat — Encouraging progress — Doubt and uncertainty — A Wife's 
Counsel — A timely suggestion — Seventy Dollars ! . . 65 

CHAPTER VI. 

INVITED TO A WIDER FIELD. 

Packing up — " Cast down but not destroyed " — A dialogue — Was 
it brotherly or wise ? — A Christian hero — A Clergyman and three 
Churches — The poor-house preacher — " If I had let rum alone" — 
Rum and horrors — We " went for" the buckwheat cakes — Crane's 
store— What '11 you have ?— " Didn 't I call for't, ha?"— "You 
can't cheat me" — Doubted ! 76 

CHAPTER VII. 

REVIEW OF THE PAST. 

The Convention of 1838 — The great petition — A committee worth 
remembering — Looking ahead — Hats off, gentlemen ! — The Law 
of 1838 — Wholesale Dealers to the front! — They meet — A Paix- 
han shell — The lesson of past events — Study and reorganiza- 
tion. .... 93 

CHAPTER VIIL 

TREASON. 

Robert Rantoul and Massachusetts Democracy — " Up Guards, and 
at them" — A practical illustration — A shallow Trickster — A laugh 
out of place — Hard at work, but happy — Judge Crosby — Wise 

. counsel . . .113 

CHAPTER IX. 

Money, how will you get it ?— Financial Plan — Duties of Agents— 
The way our plan worked — Illustrative Reports — The Washing- 
tonian movement — The Temperance Union breaking down, why ? 
An explanation — Local organizations essential — Washingtonian- 
ism, its errors — Washingtonianism, its power — Summing up. 122 



CONTENTS. IX 

CHAPTER X. 

The Clergy and their general faithfulness — Mistakes and their re- 
sults — " Experiences," their potency — More blunders — The Clergy 
disaffected — Close organizations, their origin — Practical results — 
DiiFerent organizations compared — What is needed. . . 140 

t 

CHAPTER XI. 

Open societies, their advantages — Discussion before the masses 
wonderfully effective — Comparisons — Our progress too slow — 
Why I thus speak — Our younger brethren — Progress before the 
year 1840 — Some change essential to a triumph — Three classes 
will not join the Orders — Why ? — Regalia — They love the drink 
— Out of date ? No — How they work in California — A glorious 
success — A supposition — Policy our ground of choice. . 154 

CHAPTER Xn. 

OPERATIONS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS TEMPERANCE UNION. 

Sad results of wrong measures — Our temperance Poets — Fourteen 
o'clock — A Cotton Speculation — Jimmy's Mill — The Distiller's 
Disaster — A grist from Jimmy's Mill. . . . .172 

CHAPTER Xm. 

BOUND, AND HOW. 

The Widow's Son— In the " Slough of Despond "—A fight for Life- 
Victorious — The Moral — A Speculation — Still moralizing — The 
Longevity of Reformers 188 

CHAPTER XIV. 

OUR LEADERS AMD CHAMPIONS. 

Rev. Dr. Justin Edwards — The First New England Regiments — 
Personal Peculiarities — Rev. John Pierpont — The freedom of the 
Pulpit assailed — A Masterly Defence — Logic — Logic Versified — 
The License System — Sarcasm — Legitimate employment of it — 
Awful Exposures — Shall we give it wings ? Yes — " Lament in 
Rhyme, Lament in Prose" — Square hits — Summing up. . 196 



X CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XV. 

" THERE WERE GIANTS IN THOSE DAYS." 

L. M. Sargent — Personal peculiarities — The Temperance Tales — A 
Damascus blade well employed — "Deacon Giles' Distillery" — 
Providential and grand results — Father Taylor — Word painting 
— Eloquence 214 

CHAPTER XYI. 

Joseph Breck — A glass of Gin — Compare them, Sir — Frightened — 
A laugh all round — A cup of tea — A home question — What . do 
you say ? — A new patron — Our best hold — Gough, Gough ! — 
Discussion, its value — The tipsy Son — Afflicted — The old story — 
Converted at a blow — Temperance Conversions, how eiFected — 
Ruminating — Only to travelers — Travelers on short routes — Pret- 
ty much burned out — The poor old Doctor — Expelled — Why is it ? 
The Major — " Take him off" — Threatened — Satisfaction — Recov- 
ered — Trying it again — " Ten cents" — The wholfe cost. . 231 

CHAPTER XVH. 

Incompetent Advocates — Their influence — Oiir early Advocates — 
District Societies — On time — The Christian way — The Lunch — 
A Good Time — The lesson of it — Visit the Brethren — Rhymes — ■ 
A new Field — How shall we fix it ? — Plan of operations — Trouble 
in the Camp 265 

CHAPTER XVm. 

Moving — Guerrilla Warfare — Almost discouraged — Retreating- 
Arrested and sent to the front — One thousand dollars — Getting 
into type — Front to Front — We rout them — Comfortable — Visit- 
ing the Prisoners — Sham Democracy — Republicans unsound and 
timid — A glorious opportunity — Political action — They beg off — 
A venal Press. ........ 288 

CHAPTER XIX. 

The Maine Law — Reaction, how created — False Witnesses — Work 
ing up a " reaction" — A Prophesy — Its fulfillment — How it goes— 



CONTENTS. XI 

Search and Seizure — Cleaned out — A Viper without fangs — Try- 
ing it on — Terrible threats — Nobody hurt — We roll them out — 
Legs — Three cheers for the Law — Cargoes or Pint Bottles ? 
Either ! — Property — Pour it out 305 

CHAPTER XX. 

Will you come? Yes— A Challenge— A four days Debate — The 
Whisky Champion — A Bill of Indictment — Plausible but base- 
less — Still Debating — Parallel Cases— Shad in Connecticut River ! 
Ha, ha — A good time— A capital arrangement — A Colloquy — 
A Distiller at the front— Political Economy— Still-fed Pork — 
'' Tender"— Hard Work but poor Pay 325 

CHAPTER XXI. 

Westward ho ! — On the Prairies — A Thanksgiving extemporized — 
I Whisky and the Indians — Life on the Farm. . . .342 

CHAPTER XXH. 

Return to New England — Organization and Finance — Instruction 
the Great Want — Sensation versus Education — What might have 
been — Poverty and its results — Mistakes of Good Men — Why is 
it permitted ? — A " New Departure" suggested — Will you attend 
to it, Sir,? . . 348 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

The Million Fund — Massachusetts Alhance — Old Dr. Beecher — To 
the West again — Thurlow W. Brown 360 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

Charles Dickens — The Logic of Facts — What we must Teach — 
Foundations and Connections — Starvation and Consequent Fee- 
bleness — Slightly Intoxicated — Temperance and the Doctors — 
The Longevity of our Temperance Fathers — Form of^Organiza- 
tion for Local Temperance S<jcieties — Conclusion. . 378 



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A FOETT TEARS FIGHT 

WITH THE 

DRINK DEM OK 



CHAPTER I. 



Incentive to the Battle — A sad state of things — A Httle light — 
Set on — Considering the matter — The "VV^hipping Post — The first 
blow — Signing the pledge — Rev. Dr. Hewett — The Fathers — 
Missionary work with Pills — William Goodell — A blow from 
Elder Meech — My first Speech — "What came of it — Pure Gold. 

In the year 1826, while at the home of my father in 
Lisbon, Conn., engaged in certain studies supposed to 
be necessary as preliminary to the study of medicine, in 
which it had been settled that I should subsequently 
engage, rumors reached our family circle that move- 
ments in opposition to the sale and use of intoxicating 
liquors had originated, not only in our own state, but 
in other New England states as well. These rumors, 
aided by local circumstances which I cannot here detail, 
directed our thoughts to the pernicious results of th5 
drinking customs which at that time universally pre- 
vailed, and of the liquor traffic which was then carried 
on in every town and village under the sanction of law 



14 SAD STATE OF THINGS. 

and apparently without awakening a suspicion on the 
part of the masses of the people that there was anything 
wrong about either. Our attention having thus been 
called to the subject, it was frequently discussed around 
our hearth, in the held, and by tlie w^ay. Facts to clas- 
sify and compare and from which to draw conclusions, 
were all around us and were of the most startling cliar- 
acter. More than one-tenth of our male population who 
had passed the age of thirty were occasional, it not 
habitual, drunkards. With that statement the results 
otherwise need not here be described. And yet, on all 
public occasions, intoxicating liquors, the cause of all 
this mischief, were present. At auctions, military train- 
ings and elections, at the raising of houses, barns, or 
bridges, at public celebrations, on New Years days and 
the annual Thanksgivings, at funerals and even at the 
ordination of ministers, the presence ol intoxicating 
liquors was deemed indispensable. They were relied 
upon to sustain the farmer during the severe labors of 
the haying and harvest ; and the best men then living 
drank them freely, and many such were engaged in tjie 
traffic. That great changes have been wrought in the 
customs and habits of the people in relation to these 
matters since that date is obvious, and will not be de- 
nied by any honest man. Notwithstanding the general 
and deplorable blindness of the people at the period 
named, in reference to truths which millions even of our 
children and youth novj understand, certain facts existed 
even then quite sufficient to enable awakened and in- 
quiring minds seeking for truth and light, to find them, 
at least to a sufficient extent for practical guidance. To 
be sure we could not ihen^ even with the help of the facts 



A LITTLE LIGHT. 



15 



to Tvhich I am about to call attention, see the whole 
truth. It was not necessary that we should ; but we 
could see enough to guide us in the right direction, to 
make the path of duty plain for some distance before us, 
and that is all we have ever a right to demand ; because 
a resolute walking in that path so far as we can see it, 
will always secure additional light by the time it is 
needed. 

Here and there an individual was found, who, from 
the possession ot some personal peculiarities would 
not follow the general custom, and refused, utterly, to 
drink spirituous liquors under any circumstances, and 
it was perfectly plain to all observers, when attention 
was directed to the matter, that by their persistent ab- 
stinence they lost nothing on the score of health or the 
power of endurance. A brother of mine was of that 
number. It was in vain that, in the field or elsewhere, 
the bottle or its contents were pressed upon Joseph. He 
would not drink. He did not like the taste of it. The 
fiery stuff burned his mouth and he would not swallow 
it. " But Joseph, you cannot stand it on water alone, 
through these long, hot days, and in the midst of such 
severe labor, without a little stimulus. You will be 
fahit and give out before night." " Well, when I do, 
you will know it," was Joe's uniform reply. We soon 
discovered that he endured the fatigue of the hay and 
harvest field as well as the rest of us. In fact, if any- 
body tailed, it was never Joe. ^ 

Here, and in other similar cases, was a practical refu- 
tation of prevailing opinions ; and some of us saw it 
and were instructed. My first earnest effort in opposi- 
tion to the existing state of things occurred in this wise : 



mmim 



16 SET ON. 

Events had occurred in the immediate neighborhood, 
growing out of the use of liquor, which greatly inter- 
ested our family; and the subject had been "discussed 
around our hearth during a certain evening with a good 
deal of earnestness. At the conclusion of this discus- 
sion, my father said to me, in a very earnest way, (I 
seera almost to hear his words ringing in my ears now, 
after the lapse of forty-five years,) " Charles, you are 
always scribbling about something, and for the most part, 
I think, on matters of very little importance ; and now', 
if you have any gifts in connection with the use of the 
quill, try your hand for once on a subject of some con- 
sequence." " What would you have me do ?" I asked. 
" Go into your chamber to-morrow morning and write 
an address to the authorities of this town and endeavor 
to show them the folly and wickedness of granting 
men license to destroy the peace and happiness of the 
neighborhood by selling liquors ; for that is the result 
of the sale any way, and men with but half an eye ought 
to see it." 

The reader will perceive that my venerated father, 
though he was not at the time a personal abstainer, had 
begun to get his eyes open to see things as they were. 
As I had been educated from my childhood to find pleas- 
ure in always gratifying, as far as possible, the wishes of 
my parents, (that was an ancient fashion which has be- 
come almost obsolete,) and as I had become considerably 
interested in the matter myself, I went to my chamber 
the following morning to undertake the task assigned 
me. 

The first thing to be done, of course, was to consider 
the subject earnestly and in all its aspects, so far as my 



CONSIDERING THE M4.TTER. 



IT 



boy-brain and limited observation would enable me. I 
planted myself, in imagination, over at the store, not 
eighty rods from my father's door, and in my thought 
followed the jugs of liquor from thence to the homes of 
tlie people. From the center of ihQ town, or parish, 
(Lisbon Green, we called it,) five roads diverged in as 
many directions, and I knew, personally, every inhab- 
itant for miles. On every road within a mile and a half 
of the ''meeting-house" was the home of one or more 
men ruined by drink ; on one of the roads there were 
three, and a barn is now standing on that road, within 
a mile of the meeting-house, in which two intemperate 
men have, in fits of desperation, hanged themselves 
since 1828. I saw distinctly that the mission of the 
liquor which was daily carried out of that store was a 
different one from that of the sugar, the coffee, and 
the cotton warps which the farmer's wives in those 
days filled in their own looms with home-spun woolen 
and wrought into blankets and garments for the boys. 
The liquor supplied no natural want, but, on the con- 
trary, created an artificial one, which clamored increas- 
ingly for gratification, until the ruin of its subject was 
often effected, involving in most cases the ruin of domes- 
tic happiness, and sometimes of different members of 
the family. 

While I mused upon these things I became excited 
over them, and set about the task before me, and I 
wrote an address to the Selectmen in rhyme. Youth, 
and very limited knowledge, is the only apology I can 
offer for having done so. Although the work of a boy, 
and very imperfect, yet it was an honest, earnest, and 
truthful, though clumsy, expression of thought and feel- 



LU 



18 . THE WHIPPING POST. 

ing, and it wrought good results. My father had a hun- 
dred copies of the address printed, privately, at his own 
expense, and on a certain Saturday night, wliile the peo- 
ple generally slept, these were distributed about the 
town, or parish, rather. Here a copy was stuck on the 
front gate with a tack, (my father made tacks,) there, 
one carefully folded, was slipped under the door-knocker, 
or thrust under the front door. One copy was tacked on 
the whipping-post, or rather, on the wooden box sur- 
mounting it ; for, although scourging as a penalty for 
crime had ceased to be practiced, (old Betty Green was 
the last whipped for stealing from the church the table 
cloths used at the communion service,) that^old relic of 
barbarism still stood on the " Green " in froiit of the 
" meeting-house." One copy had been tacked pretty 
securely on the afores-aid box, and was not observed un- 
til the people came to " meeting*," and it was then too 
late for any party who might be aggrieved to tear it 
down ; for to do so would be to proclaim that he was 
among the wounded pigeons. There it remained, there- 
fore, through the day ; and during the interval of public 
worship was read probably by every man and boy who 
had come to the meeting, and who was tall enough to 
read it from the ground. The post was about six feet 
high. 

Here was ''• moral suasion " applied in a very direct 
way ; and it was interesting to note the amount of rum 
wrath which this anonymous production awakened in 
certain of the readers. I noted it with interest, for I 
was present ; and, to prevent any suspicion attaching to 
me as its author, I elbowed my way through the staring 
crowd and read the article with apparently as much 



THE FIRST BLOW. 



19 



interest as any of the group. That the curious reader 
may be enabled to form some idea of the character of 
the document, I will give him here a brief extract ; but 
I must once more earnestly beg him while reading it 
to remember that its author was but a country boy, 
whose reading had been pretty much confined to the 
Bible and Psalm Book, the old Westminster Catechism, 
The American Preceptor, Columbian OrUtor, Robinson 
Crusoe, Weam's Life of Washington, and a weekly, and 
most excellent newspaper, Tlie Norwich Courier. Refer- 
ring to the liquor shop and the drinking customs of the 
people as a source of mischief this was written : — 

" Most other evils to this fount we trace, 
Which blast our j)leasures and destroy our race. 
For thi% the widow mourns — her husband dead ; 
For this, the starving children cry for bread ; 
For this, the wife sits waiting for her spouse, 
At midnight hour, and ponders o 'er her woes, 
While he, poor wretch, all power of moving fled, 
Sleeps by the fence, or in yon crazy shed. 
In vain she goes and listens at the door ; 
The sighing breeze, the torrent's distant roar 
Are all she hears. Now, where her children sleep, 
She casts one look, and then lies down to weep. 
Now, tell me, what on earth can comfort brino-, 
Or from what source shall smiling pleasure spring ? 
Pleasure ! 'tis what on earth she ne 'er can know, 
Where every passing hour augments her woe." 

In the conclusion of the article, which was of consid- 
erable length, though thrown off at one sitting, the boy 
made the following appeal to the Fathers of the town, its 
civil authorities, who, as far as licensing men to sell 
liquors was concerned, had all power in the premises : — 



•^,mtUmiims^SBm 



20 SIGNING THE PLEDGE. 

" Oil, banish grog shops, and thus check this ill, 
Delay no longer, but your part fulfill, 
Rescue the fallen, sinking age regard. 
And Heaven's best blessings will be your reward." 

A temperance society was formed in my native town, 
I think, in 1827, the pledge of which I, with most of my 
father's family, signed. It pledged its subscribers only 
against the sale and use of spirituous liquors. Among 
many others, some very aged men of the town, at the 
earnest solicitation of our venerable clergyman, Rev. 
Levi Nelson, joined the society and signed its pledge, 
fully expecting to suffer in their health from the change 
it involved ; but were afterwards surprised to find that 
what they had done for the sake of benefiting others 
through their example, had really been- blessed to the 
improvement of their own health. 

From the time when these events occurred in that 
usually quiet, rural community, to the year 1840, the 
store at the " Green " was successively occupied by four 
individuals. I knew them all, and can testify that they 
were kind-hearted, social, and agreeable gentlemen, good 
neighbors, and, excepting their ruinous traffic, were use- 
ful, well-disposed, and public-spirited men. Alas ! three 
out of the four went down to their graves the lamented 
victims of their own traffic, and the fourth suffered 
severely in his own family from the same cause. But 
one, of all the intemperate men of that community, ever 
reformed, and he was so far broken down physically, by 
long and free drinking, that he never regained hia 
health, remaining to his death but the feeble wreck of 
his former self. 

No event occurred worthy of special notice, "as con- 



REV. DR. HEWETT. 



21 



nectcd with temperance, during the three years which I 
devoted to the study of medicine, except a visit to Pitts- 
field, Mass., where I attended medical lectures, by the 
Rev. Dr. Hewett, then in the employment of " The 
American Temperance Society " as a lecturing agent. 
That learned, able, and eloquent man delivered two 
public lectures on the subject in that town, which were 
largely attended, and which so moved the influential 
portion of its citizens, that a committee was at 07ice ap- 
pointed to take measures to stop the destructive traffic 
in liquors ; but the influence of his appeals soon died 
away to such an extent that the traffic was continued 
and still curses the town, one of the most beautiful of 
Western Massachusetts. 

The startling view of- the liquor system, presented by 
Dr. Hewett in those lectures, was not, however, without 
permanent results. Undoubtedly they left impressions 
on many minds as lasting as life. Certainly they deep- 
ened in the mind of one young doctor, who heard them, 
a hatred, already pretty strong, of the liquor traffic and 
the drinking usages of society, and fixed, more firmly 
than ever before, his determination to wage upon both, 
while life should last, perpetual and uncompromising 
war. 

More than forty years after listening, at Pittsfield, to 
that excellent man and intellectual giant, I had the hap- 
piness to meet him at a temperance gathering in Bridge- 
port, Conn. It was during the last year of his life. He 
had learned that I was to address the people there on 
the good old theme, and, though in feeble health, he at- 
tended the meeting, opened it by prayer, at the request 
of the chairman, P. T. Barnum, Esq., and listened with 



22 THE FATHERS. 

attention while I addressed a crowded congregation. 
At its close he arose and gave a hearty endorsement to 
the doctrines advanced, and to the counsel given, and, 
grasping my hand in his earnest way, thanked me in the 
presence of the congregation for my earnest advocacy of 
a cause he loved. When such earnest advocates of 
this noble cause pass away, as Hewett, Edwards, Beecher, 
Pierpont, Marsh, Sargent, and Nott, I am ready to ex- 
claim in the language of one of old, " My father, my 
father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof!" 
God give to those of us who follow them a double por- 
tion of the Spirit by which those noble men were actua- 
ted. 

In the year 1829, I commenced the practice of medi- 
cine at East Greenwich, Rhode Island. In the western 
part of the town where I located not a single indi^ddual 
practised abstinence from intoxicating liquors from any 
conviction that it was wrong to drink, if in moderation. 
Here, therefore, the work was to be commenced de novo. 
I had to convert my first man, and I set to w^ork on a 
favorite theory of mine, in reference to missionary oper- 
ations in general, viz : aim at the conversion of those 
nearest to you firsts and extend operations as opportuni- 
ties offer. I am apt to distrust a missionary zeal that 
burns to do good to somebody a thousand miles away, 
but neglects opportunities of doing good just at hand. 
I secured the conversion to my temperance faith of the 
excellent family with whom I boarded, that of Andrew 
Pitcher, and their hearty, cooperation in , every move- 
ment I afterward made for the advancement of the cause 
in their neighborhood. That family has been passed by 
by the destroying angel of the still. God grant that 



MISSIONAKY WOEK WITH PILLS. 23 

they may continue to be thus favored, they and their 
children's children to the latest generation. 

For the first year of my professional life I labored for 
the advancement of the temperance cause only in the 
private circle, in the intervals of professional labor. 
Often, while waiting to watch the operation of medicines 
on the sick, there would be opportunities- to talk about 
something, and somehow it would frequently happen 
that the conversation Avould turn on the fearful preva- 
lence of intemperance, and on the serious injury there- 
from to all the best interests of the community. Care- 
ful not to give needless offense, I sought thus to inter- 
est and influence those with whom I daily came in con- 
tact. With a little medicine I mixed a little temperance, 
and despite all my skill and caution in compounding the 
latter I found it more difficult to render it agreeable to 
certain parties than even my pills and powders. 

The only source of instruction on the subject then 
within my reach, except my daily observation of the 
practical working of the drinking system, was a most 
excellent paper, " The Genius of Temperance," edited 
by Wm. Goodell. Its weekly visits were most welcome 
to me, and greatly aided me in my warfare on the 
wicked and destructive system I was fighting with all 
the weapons I could command — a work which I had 
come to regard as a part of my daily duties. I believe 
it to be a part of the daily duties of every man, especial- 
ly of every Christian, to wage a constant and uncom- 
promising war on every demoralizing and destructive 
habit, custom, or institution of the community in which 
he resides. We share, in my opinion, in some degree 
the guilt of every wicked system existing within the 



Z4 A BLOW FROM ELDER MEECH. 

sphere of our influence against which we do not utter 
our earnest and continued protest, and which we do not 
study and perseveringly labor to annihilate. If I am 
wrong in holding such opinions Wm. Goodell is in part 
responsible, for his editorials taught me such doctrines 
in my early manhood. 

During the spring of 1832 the Rev. Levi Meech, 
(Elder Meech they called him,) a Baptist preacher, a 
man of decided ability, and a genuine reformer, preached 
in the neighboring town of Exeter a discourse in rela- 
tion to the prevalent evil of intemperance, and the duty 
of Christian people in regard to it. He declared mod- 
erate drinking to be a sin, because it first created the 
possibility of drunkenness, and then gave countenance 
and support to the system which continued it ; and he 
expressed the opinion that a respectable moderate 
drinker exerted a far greater influence to perpetuate the 
evil of intemperance than the drunkard. Prior to the 
delivery of that discourse he had enjoyed a popularity, 
enviable, because honestly acquired in the faithful dis- 
cbarge of what he believed to be his duty. His sturdy 
blow at a popular vice, however, instantly changed, with 
many, their o^union of their minister, and he was de- 
nounced beyond measure. For a time it seemed 
doubtful whether the more Christian part of his people 
could sustain him against the determined opposition of 
the infuriated lovers of the drink. 

The noise of the battle reached me in East Green- 
wich, where, also, some members of his church resided. 
I at once resolved on my course, and gave public no- 
tice that in Exeter, on the very ground where he had 
offended, I would express ' my views of the matter in 



MY FIRST SPEECH. 



25 



controversy in a public discourse. The announcement 
gave great alarm to many of my friends, some of whom 
thought it would expose me to personal violence, and 
others that it would lose me the good will and patron- 
age of the people, which I had acquired by careful atten- 
tion to the duties of my profession, and a kind and 
courteous deportment. I was not, however, frightened 
from my purpose, and the time was fixed for the prom- 
ised service. 

I had recently married, on the ever memorable fifth 
of May, and now, as soon as June 2d, was about to sac- 
rifice my professional prospects, so far as that locality 
was concerned, by a Quixotic assault on the customs and 
habits of the people, whom it was clearly my interest to 
conciliate. Such was the talk of the people. I im- 
proved my leisure hours in the preparation of a discourse 
for the coming occasion, as I had then no experience in 
public speaking, and on the morning of June 2d rode to 
Exeter, reinforced by my young wife, who, the year pre- 
vious, in joining a temperance society which had two 
pledges — one simply pledging abstinence from distilled 
liquors, which was designated the '' Short Pledge," and 
another pledging the party to abstinence from all intox- 
icating liquors known as the " Comprehensive Pledge " — 
had put C. P. against her name. As a matter of course 
I was now quite sure I was right, and quite courageous, 
being thus supported. Reader, if you have not learned 
that a married man rarely succeeds in any important 
undertaking without the permission if not the aid of his 
wife, it is time you did. 

The room in which the lecture was to be given was 
crowded to its utmost capacity, and as the weather was 



26 WHAT CAME OF IT. 

I 

" warm, the windows low, and the sash raised to give 

free admission to the air, my audience was increased by 

I scores of citizens who backed their wagons against the 

' building, and, mounting into them, filled the windows 

with their anxious faces. The principal liquor seller of 

I the place, a very tall gentleman, placed himself in the 

door-way, directly opposite the platform, and thus con- 
fronted me with a defiant scowl, as much as to say, 
" I will see, sir, what you^ a green, young doctor, dare 
say against the business of an influential, respectable, 
and, withal, very tall and good-looking merchant." 

The discourse was listened to with the most respect- 
ful attention, for there was too much of real manhood 
and genuine Christian principle among that people to 
tolerate any rowdy demonstrations, notwithstanding 
many of the best men present were entirely wrong in 
their opinions and practice in relation to the subject 
under discussion. The sight of that tall, scowling 
liquor seller, spreading himself in the door-way before 
me, had an effect quite different from what he anticipa- 
ted. It made me quite impatient to reach that part of 
my manuscript in which I had addressed some words to 
gentlemen of his craft, and when I did reach it I gave 
the words all possible emphasis. That the reader may 
judge of its adaptation to the case before me, I will 
transcribe a few sentences from memory : — 

'' To those who are engaged in the business of manu- 
facturing or distributing among your fellow-citizens in- 
toxicating liquors I would address a few words. Among 
a Christian people it is, I believe, a settled principle 
that men ought never to engage in any business upon 
which they cannot consistently ask the blessing of God. 



HE IS HIT DECIDEDLY. 27 

I now ask you, if, when you take the jug or bottle from 
the hand of the poor little ragged son or daughter of the 
drunkard, and go behind your counter, and turn your 
faucet to draw for a drunken father his daily quart of 
liquor, you can, while the measure is filling up, improve 
the passing moment to lift your heart to God and crave 
his blessing on such, a calling ? You dare not do it. 
You would fear the vengeance of insulted Heaven 
against such high handed wickedness added to such dar- 
ing impiety. But you may say, perhaps, that you do not 
sell to the drunkard. What then ? You sold to him 
while he was a sober man. He was, perhaps, educated 
in the school of drunkenness at '^your counter^ but when 
he had lost his property and could no longer meet his 
payments, all at once your conscience became exceed- 
ingly tender, and when the poor besotted victim of de- 
praved appetite begs you to furnish him but one glass to 
satisfy his insatiate longings, you can then vociferate in 
loud and determined tone, ' You shall not have it,' and 
the -poor wretch, as he turns disappointed and unsatis- 
fied away, mutters his curses against you as one of the 
prime authors of his destruction." 

At the conclusion of th€ discourse Elder Meech 
grasped my hand, and, with a voice tremulous with 
emotion, thanked me for this timely and efficient sup- 
port. " This," said the good man, " is friendship in- 
deed, to throw yourself into the breach with me at such 
a time as this." Among the friends of the infant enter- 
prise, one man, besides Elder Meech, was conspicuous. 
He was a man of large intellect, and a noble soul thor- 
oughly imbued with the spirit of Christ. He had been 
greatly interested in the preparations for the meeting, 



28 

active in extending the notice and in securing a general 
attendance, and with the most intense interest he now 
listened to every word of the discourse. It was but an 
utterance of his own thought and feeling by another 
voice, and both his intellect and heart responded. How 
that great, clear, and loving eye of his kindled as he saw 
that the truth was finding a lodgment in the minds and 
hearts of his neighbors and friends ! It might have been 
truthfully said of him, as of the martyred Stephen, that 
" his face shone as the face of an angel." God be 
thanked for such men as Deacon Russell Jocelyn. It is 
with a thrill of pleasure that I write his name. For 
years I enjoyed his friendship and cooperation. But he 
has gone to his rest. He was a noble man by nature, 
made more noble, more efficient, and sweeter by the 
grace of God. 

At the close of the public service I was solicited by a 
committee, just then and there appointed, to furnish a 
copy of the discourse for publication. My manuscript 
was placed in their hands, and a subscription raised 
upon the spot to pay for the printing of five hundred 
copies. It was printed and distributed, and no pam- 
phlet ever circulated in Rhode Island was more carefully 
studied. The subject, however imperfectly treated, was 
entirely new. It interested both friends and enemies of 
the liquor system, and all were anxious to learn what 
could be said on the subject. 



CHAPTER II. 

Organization — A Commissary Department "Wanting — Little Money 
but Rich — Ben Johnson Cures the Doctor — Cider Experience — 
Out of the Scrape — Rhymes and Retailers — Still Rhyming — Ar- 
gumentum ad Hominem — The Winding Sheet — They Dislike 
but Patronize Him. 



My views in relation to the sale and use of spirituous 
liquors having thus become known, I began to receive 
invitations to address the people on the subject in differ- 
ent localities, and these invitations I generally accepted. 
Societies were organized at many points, and before the 
close of the year 1833 their numbers even in that little, 
but very wealthy and respectable, State of Rhode Island 
were very considerable. These societies had each a 
written constitution, the preamble to which briefly recit- 
ed the reasons for its formation, and recounted the evils 
inflicted on society by the traffic in and the use of intox- 
icating liquors, and the danger to the habits of the peo- 
ple from their continued use, especially to the young. 
These societies were officered as other societies usually 
are which are organized and intended to advance special 
and important interests. They had each a President, 
one or more Vice-Presidents, a Secretary, and a Treas- 
urer, and had some sensible plan been devised for sup- 
plying these organizations with the sinews of war, need- 
ed funds, it is doubtful if any other forms of organiza- 
tion would since have been adopted. 

(29) 



30 A COMMISSARY DEPARTMENT WANTING. 

They would never have been needed, in my opinion, 
for those original societies would thus have been ren- 
dered as lasting as the system which they were intended 
to break down. And as they had no forms or features 
which were objectionable to any who were prepared to 
endorse their doctrines and adopt their pledge or bond 
of union, they might, to this day, have embraced all the 
real friends of abstinence, and given our forces the ad- 
vantage not only of unity of sentiment, but unity of or- 
ganization. The advantage of this is often seen in con- 
nection with political campaigns, where the primary or- 
ganizations of a great political party are essentially of 
one pattern throughout the country. 

My opinions in reference to the importance of a finan- 
cial basis to the enterprise were given to the public in a 
pamphlet, published at Chicago, 111., in the year 1864, 
with the following title : " The Temperance Cause, 
Past, Present, and Future, or. Why We Are Where 
We Are." To that publication I would refer the reader 
for a more extended explanation of my views on that 
subject. 

While the good work thus progressed in Rhode Island 
it was carried forward with even greater rapidity and 
energy in other neighboring States because more likerally 
sustained finaneially. I had no considerable share in 
the work outside of Rhode Island for years, as my tem- 
perance labor was entirely gratuitous, except in a few 
instances where my traveling expenses, merely, were paid 
by the societies before whom I lectured, and, in the 
meantime, I supported myself and an increasing family 
by my practice as a physician. As a matter of course I 
often lost professional business when abroad lecturing, 



LITTLE MONEY, BUT RICH, 



81 



and often resolved that under the circumstances I must 
decline future invitations ; but committees would visit 
me and urge the needs of the cause in their several lo- 
calities with such earnestness and persistence that 
I would consent to go just that once, and so it continued 
for years. In all this, however, I received a rich re- 
ward in intimate connection with the labor. The com- 
fort of believing that I was thus lessening sin and con- 
sequent suffering, that I was thus, in a humble way, in- 
ducing my countrymen to honor the laws of God in their 
personal habits, and to secure their personal develop- 
ment in a right direction by laboring for the advance- 
ment of truth and righteousness in the world, and thus 
to come more into the spirit and the work of our Divine 
Master by active sympathy with the suffering, and by 
the practice of self-denial for the good of others. 

How rich I often felt in seeing, at the close of an 
evening's service, twenty, thirty, and sometimes fifty 
names added to the pledge of abstinence, oftentimes em- 
bracing in the number some of the most honored and 
influential names of the community. How I rejoiced 
and gloried in the work ; and often as I journeyed 
homeward from such labor late in the night, and alone 
imder the silent stars, I devoutly thanked God that I 
was 'permitted to labor for so good a cause. It is a 
truth, with which I think the mass of mankind are not 
sufficiently impressed, that while we labor unselfishly 
for the good of others, we are taking the most direct and 
effective means for securing our own happiness and self- 
development in the highest and best sense of that term. 
Hence, really Christian labor brings its own exceeding 
great reward now and here^ while engaged in it, and 



32 BEN JOHNSON CURES THE DOCTOR. 

quite independent of any promised or anticipated re- 
wards in the distant future. 

In the autumn of the year 1835 I was invited by the 
leading citizens of Centerville, Warwick, to take the 
place and practice of a Dr. Knight, who, for many 
years, had been the principal and very popular physician 
of that village and vicinity, but Avho had decided to re- 
tire from business. I accepted the situation and re- 
moved my family thither. It was but five miles from 
my former place of residence, and as it was the center 
of a cluster of manufacturing villages, it offered a more 
extended field for professional labor. 

Soon after my location at Centerville I was invited to 
address the people at the regular monthly meeting of 
the Centerville Temperance Society. I accepted the in- 
vitation and performed the service, getting more hearty 
thanks from the society than from a number of liquor 
sellers who were conducting a killing business in that 
and the neighboring villages, as, in the lecture, I ex- 
pressed in not very complimentary terms my opinion of 
their traffic. 

I mention the fact just here, for the i ake of giving 
additional point to a brief narrative, of one of the most 
ludicrous and painful events which has ever occurred in 
connection with my temperance labor, and yet it was to 
me quite instructive. Hitherto I had not adopted tlie 
" Comprehensive Pledge," my warfare being with " spir- 
ituous " or " distilled " liquors. I had, however, 
stopped drinking wine^ for Ben Johnson, to whom I had 
given a personal exhortation to relinquish his much- 
loved gin, had blunted the edge of my talk by asking me 
if I did not occasionally take a glass of wine, (the fel- 



CIDER EXPERIENCE. 



83 



low knew I did,) and further, and worse still, had asked 
me why I drank the wine in preference to water. I had 
replied that when I had been riding in the cold, and 
was broken of my rest, &c., I had found the moderate 
stimulus of a glass of wine to be quite refreshing to me. ' 
" You are right," said Ben, " and when I have been out 
chopping all day, or sledding wood, and get tired and 
chilled, I find the moderate stimulus of a glass of gin 
refreshing to me." That speech had cured me of wine 
drinking, but still I occasionally drank at the tables of 
farmers a glass of cider. Not often, but occasionally, 
and I was not pledged against its use. 

In removing my effects from my former residence to 
Centerville, a load or two of apples had been taken over 
— it was in the autumn — and a couple of barrels of ci- 
der, as I had owned an orchard in the country, and a 
neighbor had worked up my refuse apples "on sheers," 
as he termed it. The cider had been put into my cel- 
lar at Centerville and forgotten, for I did not care 
enough for it to put it on tap. Others, it seems, had 
cast affectionate glances upon it while it was being 
put into the cellar, and one morning a citizen of the 
village called and inquired if I had not a barrel of cider 
which I would sell. Just then I had use for every spare 
dollar, for I had bought the property of Dr. Knight, and 
my transfer to a new field of labor had taxed me pretty 
heavily. I remembered, that there were two casks in 
the cellar, and concluded that one, properly cared for, 
would make all the vinegar we should need, and I there- 
fore replied that I would sell to him the other barrel. 
The price was agreed upon, and he took it home on a 
wheelbarrow. He was a giant for strength, had a 



84 THOU ART THE MAN. 

noble physical frame, and, as I afterward learned, was 
really a clever fellow and a useful citizen when free 
from the influence of drink. Of course, I knew nothing 
of the man's habits or history, when I sold him the ci- 
der, for I was a new comer in the village. Thus far it 
had not once occurred to me that I had been guilty of 
any impropriety, or had acted at all inconsistent with 
my profession as a friend of temperance. 

A few days after the departure of the cider the super- 
intendent of a factory in the neighborhood called at my 
residence, early in the morning, and requested me to go 
directly to a distant part of the village and see a Mr. 
Wilcox, who, he stated, was in a most deplorable condi- 
tion. I inquired if he had been suddenly attacked, and 
what appeared to be the trouble or ailment. He an- 
swered that it was a sort of mania or drunken craziness. 
At the word "drunken" I started, of course, and in- 
quired if he knew where the man got his liquor. In my 
thought I was after the rum-seller directly. " He has 
had no liquor," said my friend Allen. "No liquor! 
On what, then, did he get drunk ?" " Why, somebody 
sold him a barrel of cider a few days ago, and he has 
been pouring it down ever since. He is not so drunk 
but what he can move about, but he is as fierce as a 
tiger, and the moment he is seen outside of his door the 
neighbors clap too their doors and bolt them that he 
may not enter." 

What a revelation was here ! Mr. Allen did not 
know that I had sold that barrel of cider, but I knew it, 
and if I ever felt like getting into a very small place 
and shutting the door after me it was then. Could I 
have been bought that morning at the then present valu- 



OUT OF THE SCRAPE. 35 

ation, and afterwards sold at former estimates, some- 
body would have made a speculation. I visited the mis- 
erable man, tried to purchase back what remained of 
the cider, offering for it all he had paid for the full bar- 
rel, that I might pour it on the earth at once ; but he 
refused to part with it. I assured him, however, that I 
should see him again the following morning, and if I 
found hij^i in the same condition I would go into the 
cellar at all hazards and empty the barrel, for I was de- 
termined that it should not be true another day that a 
man in Centerville was drunk on an article which Dr. 
Charles Jewett, a temperance lecturer, had sold him. 
After my departure, his wife, at her own imminent 
peril, glided down the cellar stairs and drew the tap, 
and the barrel was soon empty. I certainly felt much 
obliged to her, and I can assure my readers that I have 
sold no cider since. That incident taught me that 
there was but one consistent course for any real friend 
of temperance to pursue, viz : To wage uncompromising 
and indiscriminate war on all intoxicating liquors, no 
matter by what name they may be called. 

The second year I spent in Centerville, it was the 
year 1836, I believe, I wrote a rhymed address to 
retailers of liquor, a copy of which was solicited by my 
neighbor, friend, and faithful fellow-laborer. Rev. S. 
W. Coggshall, for publication in " Zion's Herald," the 
organ of the Methodist denomination for New England, 
and an earnest and able advocate of thorough temper- 
ance from that date to its last issue. It appeared in 
that paper, and as the friends of the cause in RJiode 
Island thought it contained some important truths, with 
which the public mind should become familiar, they 



36 RHYMES AND RETAILERS. 

caused it to be published in hand-bill form also, and 
thousands and tens of thousands of copies were distrib- 
uted through that and neighboring states. I place it 
before my readers here, not for any literary merit it 
possesses, but that they may learn what were my views 
of the traffic at the date at which the article was 
written, and that they may also learn what instrumen- 
talities were employed by the friends of the „ cause at 
that early period of its history, with which to mould the 
public sentiment, will, and action on this great question. 
Let it be borne constantly in mind that 1 am not giving 
a general history of the progress of the temperance 
enterprise throughout the country, but only such move- 
ments as occurred under my own observation, or so near 
to me that I became thoroughly acquainted therewith, 
and deeply interested therein. 

AN ADDRESS 
To Retailers of Intoxicating Liquors, 

BY OHAELES JEWETT, M. D., 

of Centreville, Warwick^ R. I. 

Ye, who regardless of your country's good, 

Fill up your coffers with the price of blood ; 

Who pour out poison with a liberal hand. 

And scatter crime and misery through the land; 

Though now rejoicing in the midst of health, 

In full possession of ill-gotten wealth. 

Yet a few days, at most, the hour must come, 

When ye shall know the poison-sellers' doom, 

And shrink beneath it for upon you all, 

The indignation of a God shall fall. 

Ye know the fruits of this accursed trade, 

Ye see the awful havoc it hath made, 



STILL RHYMING. 



37 



Ye pour to men disease, and want, and woe, 

And then tell us ye wish it were not so, 

But, 'tis a truth, and that ye know full well, 

That some will drink so long as ye will sell. 

But here that old excuse yet meets us still, 

" If I don't sell the poison, others will." 

Then let them sell and you'll be none the worse 

They'll have the profits, and they'll have the curse. 

Bear this in mind, you have at your command 

The power to curse or power to bless the land ; 

If ye will sell, Intemperance still shall roll 

Its wave of bitterness o'er many a soul. 

Still shall the wife for her lost husband mourn, 

And sigh for days that never shall return. 

Still that unwelcome sight our eyes shall greet. 

Of beggar'd children roaming through the street; 

And thousands, whom our labors cannot save. 

Go trembling, tottering, reeling to the grave. 

Still loitering at your shop the live-long day, 
Will scores of idlers pass their hours away ; 
And e'en the peaceful night for rest ordained. 
Shall with their noisy revels be profaned. 
The poisonous cup will pass, and mirth and glee 
Gild o'er the surface of their misery ; 
Uproarious laughter fill each space between — 
Harsh oaths, ungodly songs, and jests obscene. 
And there you'll stand amid that drunken throng, 
Laugh at the jest, and glory in the song. 



How oft ye see the children of the poor. 
With unshod feet, unwilling, throng your door. 
And carry with them, as they homeward go, 
The fruitful source of wretchedness and woe — 
That which will change the father to a beast ; 
That which will rob a mother of her rest ; 
And take from half-fed children needful bread, 
And give them curses, frowns, and blows instead I 



38 ARGUMENTUM AD HUMIEUM. 



Pour out your poison till some victim dies ; 
Then go, and at his funeral wipe your eyes. 
Join there that mourning throng, with solemn face, 
And help to bear hira to the burial-place. 
There stands his wife, with weeping children round, 
While their fast-falling tears bedew the ground. 
From many an eye the gem of pity starts. 
And many a sigh from sympathizing hearts, 
Comes laboring up, and almost chokes the breath. 
While thus they gaze upon the work of death. 
The task concludes ; the relics of the dead 
Are slowly settled to their damp, cold bed. 

Come, now, draw near, my money-making friend ; 

You saw the starting — come and see the end ; 

When first you filled his glass, one would suffice ; 

Next two were wanting ; and now, here he lies. 

Look now into that open grave, and say, 

Dost feel no sorrow, no remorse, to-day ? 

Does not your answering conscience loud declare. 

That your cursed avarice has laid him there ? 

Now, since the earth has closed o'er his remains, 
Turn o'er your book, and count your honest gains. 

With these lines I purposed to close the article ; but 
circumstances occurred which rendered it quite conven- 
ient for me to add a few lines. A Mr. Kikon, residing 
in Washington Factory Village, had been requested to 
purchase for his sisters some trifling article of dry 
goods. The merchant, of whom he purchased it, used 
as a wrapper, a leaf torn from an old account book, in 
which accounts had been kept years before, when 
liquors, as well as dry goods were retailed at the store. 



THE WINDING SHEET. 



39 



When Mr. Kilton reached home, the purchased article 
was called for. He delivered it, retaining in his hand the 
paper in which it had been wrapped. Glancing his eye 
over the paper, he observed, that upon that leaf had 
been kept the account of the last week's purchases of a 
family by the name of Briggs. He remembered the 
history of poor Briggs ; that he died suddenly, after a 
week's debauch. The entries on the leaf were as 
follows : — 



" Monday, Sept. 5th. 
Tuesday, " 6th. 
Wednesday, " 7th. 
Thursday, " 8th. 
Friday, " 9th. 

Saturday, " 10th. 



To one quart of gin. Price, — 



To five yards cloth, for 
winding sheet, 



Thus it appeared from the account that poor Briggs 
had been regularly furnished with a quart of liquor per 
day for five days in succession ; that during the night of 
the fifth day, Friday, he had died, and that on Saturday 
the family had been furnished, at the same store, with 
his winding sheet, or the cloth of which to make it. As 
in the last line of the " address," I had bidden the liq- 
uor seller return from the grave of his victim, and look 
over his account-books, it seemed quite proper that I 
should inquire what he found written there, and I, 
therefore, added the following lines : — 

How doth the account for his last week begin ? 
" Monday, Sept. 5th, one quart of gin," 
A like amount, for each succeeding day. 
Tells on the book, but wears his life away. 
Saturday's charge makes out the account complete, 



40 THEY DISLIKE BUT PATRONISE HIM. 

To cloth, Jive yards to make a winding-sheet. 
There, all stands fair, without mistake or flaw, 
How honest trade will thrive, upheld by law ! 

It will doubtless interest the reader to know that by 
such plain utterances of truth, I did not lose the patron- 
age of the liqdor traders. They knew that I was right 
and that they were wrong, and they seemed to have 
more respect for me, the more distinctly I set forth the 
wickedness of their course. Beside this, I think they 
preferred the services of a physician who never swal- 
lowed the villainous compounds they sold. They saw, 
every day, in their places of business, the effects which 
liquors produced upon the reasoning powers of those 
who drank them, and they shrewdly enough concluded 
that the use of their liquors would not materially aid a 
man in the investigation of the causes and nature of 
disease, and in the choice of means for its removal. 




REV. THOS. P. HUNT. 



CHAPTER III. 

A Visitor — Ttioinas P. Hunt — His speech at Aponaug — " An excel- 
lent sentiment, madam" — Facing the question — Yes or no ? — He 
loves but votes against it— A victory for rum— An " Open House " 
— A song furnished gratis. 

During the year, I was strengthened and comforted 
by a visit from the Rev. Thomas P. Hunt of Pennsylva- 
nia, who had become quite distinguished as an advocate 
of the cause in that and other of the Middle States. I 
was most happy to entertain and confer v. itli him. I 
arranged appointments for him at a number of points in 
my neighborhood, and was delighted to find the views I 
had taken of the whole liquor system so ably defended 
by this devoted and excellent man. There are few men 
living in our country who have considered the whole 
subject so thoughtfully and earnestly as this early advo- 
cate of our cause. His visit to me, and the long and 
earnest discussion we had in relation to the various 
phases which the enterprise then presented, constituted 
an era in my life, as an humble worker in the cause. 
His personal influence was more potent with me tlian 
that of any other man, I had almost said of all other 
men, in inducing me, at a later period, to abandon my 
profession, and devote myself to the public advocacy of 
abstinence from intoxicating liquors. 

That the reader may be able to form some idea of the 
manner in which the subject was treated in public by 

(41) 



42 THOMAS P. HUNT. 

" Father Hunt," I will report the introductory portion 
of his lecture at the village of Apponaug in Warwick, 
R. I. I only regret that with the words, I cannot give 
his appearance before the audience, the expression of 
his countenance, especially of the eye, than which few 
keener are ever set in human heads, and the tone of his 
voice, at once vei-y peculiar and very impressive. There 
are doubtless many citizens of Warwick living, who 
heard the address, and I am very certain they would, if 
required, testify to the accuracy of my report, made 
after the lapse of thirty-five years. 

" Ladies and Gentlemen : I, last evening, delivered a 
discourse at Washington Factory Village in the town of 
Coventry. As I was quite at leisure during the after- 
noon preceding the lecture, I proposed to walk out for a 
little exercise. A friend suggested that I might do 
some service to the people of the village, perhaps, by 
calling on Mr. Capwell, the keeper of the hotel, and 
having a talk with him. He was represented to me as 
a very clever sort of a man, good natured, not at all in- 
clined to be abusive, and it was thought my words 
might be of service to him. I called upon him ; intro- 
duced myself as the person who was to speak on tem- 
perance in the evening, and found him disposed to listen 
to me with patience and candor. I told him I had been 
informed that he was the possessor of considerable real 
estate in the village, and assured him that whatever 
should have the effect to lessen the intelligence of the 
people, and to lower the standard of public morals, as I 
was quite sure his traffic would do, though he might not 
intend it, would most certainly diminish the value of his 
I *al estate, as it would render the village a less desira- 



HIS SPEECH AT APPONAUG. 43 

ble place of residence. And I suggested to him that, 
in the long run, he would lose more by this depreciation 
of property, than he would gain, directly, by his traffic. 
He was listening to me with evident interest, and I 
could not but hope I was making a favorable impression 
on his mind, when, all at once, a side door opened, and 
a little bit of a woman rushed into the room so swiftly, 
that her cap border was turned back on her head by the 
current of air she created, and in a very excited manner 
and with a very shrill voice, she exclaimed, ' I do wish 
that people would mind their own business.' Taken 
quite aback for the moment by this startling introduc- 
tion and speech, I replied, ' Well, madam, and so do 
I! I agree with you exactly, madam. That is an excel- 
lent sentiment of yours. I approve of it everywhere 
and always. I am a temperance lecturer, madam, and 
you see now, that while I am persuading this gentleman, 
your husband, very likely, madam, to abandon the sale 
of liquors, which make men drunk, I was laboring right 
along in the line of my business. You see I agree with 
you entirely. That is an excellent sentiment of yours. 
One reason why I labor to persuade men to leave off 
drinking, is because the use of liquor does, notoriously, 
lead men to neglect their business. For instance, here 
is a carpenter. He has a fine sliop and good tools. He 
is himself a good workman, and has not only apprenti- 
ces .to aid him, but also skilled workmen. He ought to 
do a large business, but he does not. Wliat is the 
trouble ? The public know that he is a free drinker, and 
that he has, frequently, in the midst of an important 
job, gone off on a spree, and the work has stopped in 
consequence. Business men don't like to intrust him 



44 " AN EXCELLENT SENTIMENT, MADAM.'' 

important jobs on that account. Now don't you see 
that if I could induce that clever carpenter to leave off 
drinking, he would, thereafter, mind his own husiness. 
You see I agree with you, exactly, madam.' Just here 
she turned upon her heel and rushed out of the room, 
not even stopping to bid me good afternoon. I felt ag- 
grieved at it. I naturally like the ladies, and love to be 
in agreement with them always wlien I can. And when, 
as in this case I take great pains to prove that I am in 
accord with them, I like to have the fact appreciated, 
and to be treated with courtesy." By this time, my 
readers will believe me that all eyes were riveted upon 
that little crooked man, with the large mouth and the 
lightning eyes, and that all ears were open to hear 
words of instruction from him. 

The public mind had, by this time, become so far 
enlightened in relation to the liquor traffic, that the 
people of Rhode Island clamored for the abrogation of 
the license system. The question of license or no li- 
cense was referred to the several towns by act of the 
Legislature, and was to be decided by the popular vote. 
That style of legislation, whatever may be said against 
it otherwise, brings to the masses of voters, very di- 
rectly, a sense of their individual responsibility, which 
is apt to be lost sight of when they act on this question 
through others, who are elected as party men, and may, 
perhaps, have other important duties to perform besides 
deciding for or against license. There is no chance, 
however, for casting on others the responsibility of the 
voter, when the vote is not for or against certain men, 
but directly for or against licensing liquor shops. 
When a man, about to vote on that question, writes 



FACING THE QUESTION, — YES OR NO ? 45 

" 2/^s " on his ballot, he hnows that he is to become in. 
part responsible for whatever mischief the liquor traffic 
may cause during the year ;' and if he votes " iVo," he 
feels that thus he rids himself of personal responsibility 
for the continuance of the traffic so far as voting is con- 
cerned. It was interesting and instructive to see how 
different men deported themselves at the polls in refer- 
ence to this matter. Mr. A. loves his glass, but last 
week his daughter came home to her father's house with 
two or three helpless children, as she dared not longer 
live with her drunken husband. How does he vote to- 
day ? Watch him. Good ! He decides for the loved 
ones at home, and against the liquor shop. Mr. B.,who 
has one drunken son, and two others rapidly approach- 
ing the same condition, goes the other way and votes 
for license. God have mercy upon him ! What will 
the poor man do or say when he follows that eldest son, 
the drunkard, to the grave, as he probably will very 
soon ? Can he, by any sort of reasoning, bring himself 
to believe that he had no hand in the ruin of his son, 
when his example, arguments, and vote, all helped to 
fasten the chain upon him, and to sustain the system 
which put the cup of poison to his lip ? Perhaps he 
may. When men reason with the stomach instead of 
the brain, there is no knowing what conclusions they 
may arrive at. It is well to have the line drawn so 
that every man may know exactly where he stands in 
relation to this as well as other important matters. So 
thought Elijah, " How long halt ye between two opin- 
ions ? If the Lord be God, follow him, but if Baal 
then follow him." So in relation to the liquor system. 
If it be a blessing, sustain it, if a curse, destroy it. 



46 A VICTORY FOR RUM — AN 

Thus in Rhode Island, for a time, we had a clean 
issue. In some towns we were beaten. Warwick, the 
town in which I resided, was one of them, but in almost 
every case where the liquor party prevailed, its leaders 
made such use of their victory as to disgust the more 
decent part of the voters who helped them to secure it. 
Some liquor dealer would keep open house for the day 
or evening after the victory, and with free liquor the 
drinking and rejoicing would extend far into the night, 
and end, perhaps, with a row, thus uttering the con- 
demnation of the liquor traffic in a language quite as 
emphatic as could be employed by its most sturdy oppo- 
nents. The evening after the triumph of the liquor 
party in Warwick, a portion of the rank and file had a 
jollification at a certain establishment in Centreville. 
The presiding genius, who there dispensed liquors, on 
returning from the town meeting, sent out word that he 
should keep open house that evening, and that there 
would be a free drink for all. Wishing to aid my 
neighbors in giving a fitting expression to their joy on 
this occasion, I hastily penned a few stanzas, and sent a 
copy over by a friend for the use of the company. It 
was entitled 

THE GROG-SELLERS' INVITATION. 

Ye friends of grog, rejoice, rejoice ! 
The work, the glorious work is done, 
Raise high each trembling stammering voice, 
The battle's fought, and we have won ! 

Ye old established bruisers come, 
With purple blossoms on each nose, 



A SONG FURNISHED GRATIS. 

My house this day shall be your home, 
Rejoice with us o'er fallen foes ! 



47 



Oilier stanzas of kindred character followed, and my 
contribution to the interest of the joyful occasion, 
closed, I remember, as follows : 



What though our wives should scold and fret, 
Blows, well applied, will cool their spunk» 
While rum our parching throats can -wet;, 
Rejoice and be exceeding — drunk 1 



CHAPTER W. 

A CONTROVERSY. 

A " Plucky " Wholesaler — Retreating, he gets " a shell" — A retailor 
hit — Rinsing the glasses — Providence votes dowr the traffic — 
A laughable incident — The way to do it — A shot tnat hit — En- 
listing a Sharp Shooter — He hits the " bull's eye" — " Crack up" — 
Shoot, but don't hurt folks — " Father Bonney's" Prayer — First ex- 
temporaneous Speech. 

While residing at Centerville, I had a controversy 
with one of the most respectable of the liquor traders 
in Providence — Capt. Samuel Young — in relation to 
the character of that traffic, whether beneficial and 
moral or otherwise. Its origin was as follows : 

A resolution of the Providence Temperance Society, 
urging all friends of the cause to withdraw their patron- 
age from grocers who sold liquor, provoked the ire of 
Capt. Young, and through the columns of the " Provi- 
dence Courier'' he attacked the society for passing that 
resolution. Some friend sent me a copy of the " Couri- 
er," and directed my attention to the communication of 
Capt. Young by marking the article. I replied to it 
over my own signature, and in the conclusion of my 
communication, invited him to a further discussion of 
the subject. I had long desired an opportunity of pre- 
senting my view of the liquor system to the public 
through such a channel and under such circumstances 
(48) 



THE PLUCKY WHOLESALER. 



49 



as would insure the thorough perusal of what I should 
write. Here, now, was the. opportunitj^, if Capt. Young 
would but stand fire. This, I feared, he would not do ; 
but I was mistaken. He was an honest and earnest 
man, and believed he was quite right in selling articles 
which more than half the *communitv consumed, and 
should he fear to defend his business when assailed ? 
Not he. The controversy continued for some weeks, 
and the editor and proprietor of the " Courier" remarked 
to me, years afterwards, that his paper was never in 
such demand as during that discussion. 

At length the liquor dealers of the city began to com- 
plain, as I was informed, that the discussion would do 
more harm than good, that is, to their interests, and for 
Capt. Young's spirited advocacy of the traffic they were 
not disposed to be grateful. He proposed to drop the 
subject, and designated a certain article as the last he 
should write. In that article he had resorted to a style 
of discussion which fairly absolved me, as I judged, 
from any obligation to treat him or the subject, in closing 
the controversy, with special delicacy. I therefore bore 
down on the retreating enemy with the heaviest guns at 
my command, and some of my friends fancied that they 
saw splinters fly. It may have been a mistake, however. 
At any rate, the brave captain survived, and for some 
years continued to deal in liquors. Although most of his 
sales were in quantities to be taken at once from the 
store, he sold some by the glass, and there was in the 
young doctor's concluding article a malicious fling at the 
glass-trade. After having spoken of the retail liquor 
trade in terms which many mon thought abusive, he 
grew poetical, and added : 



60 A RETAILER HIT. 

" I 'd sooner black my visage o'er 

And put the shine on boots and shoes, 
Than stand within a liquor store 

And rinse the glasses drunkards use." 

The conclusion of my last article, as nearly as I can 
recollect, was as follows : "I have sought to present to 
your mind, in their proper light, the inevitable results 
of the terrible business in which you are engaged. If, 
in view of those results, and from a proper regard for 
the welfare of the community of which you are a citizen, 
you will now abandon that business, all may be well. 
God may forgive, and an injured people may forget, the 
past. But if you shall still determine to distribute 
maddening poisons among the people,- to scatter fire- 
brands, arrows and death around you, what I have to 
say to you in conclusion is this : 

" Go on, be rich, even to your heart's desire, 

And grasp with greedy hand each worldly good ; 
But know, thy God will at thy hands require 
Thy brother's blood." 

Writers on war tell us that not one bullet in a hundred 
of those hurled in battle hits or kills a soldier. How 
that may be I know not, but I was gratified that one of 
my shots at the liquor traffic in this controversy (I had 
not discharged an hundred,) brought down one of the 
enemy's infantry. A young man engaged in keeping a 
drinking saloon, was led by reading my concluding 
article, to abandon the business, and told his friends 
what particular missile it was that hit him. It was the 
line about rinsing tumblers for drunkards. He said 
that when he first read those words (it was in the eve- 



RINSING THE GLASSES. 



51 



ning,) they filled him with rage. On the following 
morning he went to his saloon as usual, brushed down 
the shelves, saw that the decanters were all filled, 
and waited for customers. Presently a poor degraded 
wretch walked in and wanted a drink. He furnished it, 
dropped the price into the change drawer, and set up 
the decanter. But there was something more to be done 
to complete the operation. That glass must be rinsed 
and set up. He grasped the tumbler in the usual way, 
with the fore-finger pressing the inside and the thumb 
and middle finger the outside, and with the customary 
flourish, rinsed it in the water in the little tub on the 
counter. He said that no sooner had the glass touched 
the water than the troublesome line, "And rinse the 
glasses drunkards use," rushed through his memory. 
''Alas," thought he, " it is too true. I am, indeed, a 
tumbler-washer for drunkards ! Great business, that ! 
How elevating, how ennobling 1 " Another toper came 
in, and the operation was repeated. "And rinse the 
glasses drunkards use." Every time he put a tumbler 
into that little tub, those words would sing themselves 
through his brain. The dinner-hour at length arrived. 
He closed the saloon and started for his boarding-house, 
first brushing his hair and coat and pulling up his 
dickey; for who could tell but that he might meet a cer- 
tain very pretty girl in his journey. As he tripped along 
with nimble step and head erect, that mischievous line 
dashed through his brain again, and down came his eye 
to the flag-stones. He felt so ashamed, he said, in re- 
viewing the labor of the forenoon, that he could scarcely 
hold up his head or look a friend in the face. He saw, 
at once that he could not follow the business longer 



52 PROVIDENCE VOTES DOWN THE TRAFFIC. 

and preserve the smallest particle of self-respect, and he 
resolved immediately to abandon it. He sold out di- 
rectly, and told a friend what it was that opened his 
eyes to the ineffable meanness of such a calling. 

The contest for and against license in the City of 
Providence was a memorable one, and the anti-license 
party were victorious. The dealers in liquors and their 
most devoted adherents were sorely disappointed by the 
result, as, before the day of voting they felt quite sure 
of carrying the city. After the decision was known 
there was a manifest depression of spirits among them. 
They were less defiant than before, and, had the proper 
measures been adopted then to keep in active exercise 
the spirit of hostility to the liquor traffic which had thus 
been distinctly manifested, and to increase largely the 
educational branch of the enterprise as distinct from the 
legal or repressive, I doubt if there could ever have been 
any serious movement of a retrograde character in the 
State. 

The difficulty lies in making the influential and busi- 
ness men of the community feel that this great and 
needful enterprise has a just claim upon a portion of 
their time, their thoughts and the contents of their purses 
as much, aye, far more, than any other benevolent enter- 
prise of the age, inasmuch as it has to do, not only 
with the public health and public morals, with the in- 
terests of education and religion, but is a needful pro- 
tection for their own sons and daughters, as well as their 
business interests. In some particulars the advocates 
of license and free use of liquors have the advantage of 
us. The public meetings in which we educate and press 
forward our friends to more vigorous warfare on the 



A LAUGHABLE INCIDENT. 53 

liquor system, rarely occur oftener than once a week ; 
theirs are held daily, and nightly as well. Where we 
have rarely more than one gathering in a village at the 
same hour, they often have a dozen. They advocate 
self-indulgence ; we preach self-denial. 

A laughable incident occurred in Providence growing 
out of the decision adverse to license which should not 
be forgotten. A poor fellow was seen on Christian Hill, 
in the western part of the city, and near the old Hoyle 
tavern, digging industriously at the foot of a certain 
pole, just at the forks of the street. 

" Halloo ! What are you doing there ? " asked a gen- 
tleman who happened to be passing by. 

The poor fellow, who was very much excited by recent 
events and the free use of rum, looked up sadly in the 
face of his questioner, and replied : 

"Our liberties are all — hie — taken away, and it's 
only a mo — mockery to have liberty-poles sticking up 
about the — hie — city, when we have got no liberty, 
and I'm going to dig 'em down." 

" Liberty-poles, indeed ! you blockhead," replied the 
gentleman ; " why, look up and see what is over your 
head." 

The digger turned his face upward, and lo! there 
swung the tavern sign. He had mistaken its supporting 
post for the liberty-pole. The digging was, of course, 
suspended, and the poor afflicted apostle of liberty found 
some other way, probably, by which to express his grief. 
The event was celebrated in some temperance rhymes 
which found place in the next number of the Rhode 
Island Temperance Herald. 

*• Yes, dig it down, ply well the spade, 
And make it bow its haughty head." 



54 THE WAY TO DO IT. 

The article is hardly worthy of insertion here entire, 
but is referred to, to make my readers acquainted with 
an important part of the policy of the temperance 
workers of that early period. It was, to seize upon and 
employ every local occurrence which could be used to 
interest the popular mind in favor of temperance, and 
make a little capital against a ruinous system. 

That mode of warfare on the liquor system, or its ac- 
tive supporters, is not, I think, practiced so extensively 
now as at the period referred to. Firmness, fearless- 
ness, a good share of practical wisdom, and considerable 
caution, is needful to render it safe and effective. Of 
course, there are no good reasons why a dealer in 
liquors should not be held responsible before the com- 
munity for the influence of his traffic,- and he has no 
just grounds of complaint when one of his customers 
butchers his neighbor, or, it may be, his wife, or cuts 
his own throat in the frenzy of drunken delirium, if, in 
giving the facts to the world, through the press, or oth- 
erwise, the public are informed that he filled the jug, or 
bottle, for the murderer or suicide a few hours, perhaps, 
before the terrible event. 

Yet nothing troubles a rum-seller in a country town 
or village more than such an expose of his heartlessness. 
In such localities each man is known to every other, 
ind to have the indignant gaze of every decent and 
aioral man in the neighborhood turned full upon him as 
an active and guilty agent in such bloody work, and 
Ihat, too, while perhaps the unburied dead is still above 
ground to confront him and sear his eye-balls, it is terrible 
to a man who has left to him even the shred of a con- 
science, and who has not utterly lost, as few indeed have, 



A SHOT THAT HIT. 55 

all regard for the good opinions of those around them. 
If we except legal prosecutions, which, when frequent 
and successful, take from the liquor-seller his ill-gotten 
gains, and thus make his traffic a losing business for 
him, and sometimes shut him up in the House of Correc- 
tion, no measures, which I have ever employed to induce 
men to abandon the liquor traffic, have been so frequently 
effective as those above indicated. 

To illustrate further my own method of personal 
labor for the furtherance of the cause, the following in- 
cidents may serve : — 

Journeying across the State on a cold winter's day, I 
stopped at a public house to have my horse fed. While 
warming myself by the bar-room fire, I noticed within 
the bar, on the edge of a shelf loaded with decanters 
and bottles of liquor, the following words. They had 
been printed with full-faced type on a strip of paper, and 
the paper pasted on the edge of the shelf : — 

NO CREDIT OITEX MERE. 

After reflecting for a while on the matter, and arrang- 
ing in my mind some thoughts concerning it, I addressed 
myself to the landlord, who was the only person in the 
room beside myself, thus : — 

" Landlord," said I, pointing to the inscription above, 
*' I see that you bring your customers right up to the 
chalk, and don't plague yourself with book-keeping." 

'.' Oh, yes," he replied, and added : " In the sale of 
liquors these days it won't do to give credit. If you 
don't get your pay down, from the class that buy liquors 
now, you will never get it." 

" I think you are right, there^"* said I, " but you 



3Q ENLISTING A SHARPSHOOTER. 

might add a few words which would improve your in- 
scription, and render it more striking and impressive." 

" What would you add ?" inquired he, apparently 
quite interested. 

" Give me a pen and paper," said I, " and I will show 
you." 

" Just step to the desk within the bar," said he, "and 
you will find paper, ink, and pen." 

I followed his suggestion, wrote out in a single line 
his inscription, and adding three other lines I laid down 
the pen, leaving the paper on the desk, and returned to 
my seat near the fire somewhat curious to know how he 
would receive my proposed amendment. 

He walked into the bar, and resting his arms on the 
desk, (it was a high one,) he bent over -the writing for 
some moments, and when he turned away it was with a 
subdued and saddened countenance. The shot had evi- 
dently struck the target, his conscience. The inscrip- 
tion, as improved, read thus : — 

" No credit given here, — 
But / have cause to fear 
That there 's a day-book kept in Heaven, 
Where charge is made and credit given." 

When, from lack of time or ability, I could not make 
recent occurrences available to create a spirit of hostility 
to the liquor traffic, it has ever been my policy to em- 
ploy as far as possible the leisure or larger abilities of 
fellow-laborers for that purpose. A successful move 
of that sort occurred as follows : 

One of the churches of Providence proposing to build 
a new house of worship, sold their old one. It was pur- 



THE CHURCH POLLUTED. 67 

chased by parties who had less regard for proprieties 
than for the gains of a ruinous business, and they con- 
verted the building to a brewery. I stated the facts by 
letter to a young friend of mine, George S. Burleigh, 
residing with his parents at his native place, Plainfield, 
Conn., and requested him to give fitting expression to 
the feelings which such a sacrilegious act would natu- 
rally create in the heart of any well constituted individ- 
ual, not case-hardened by the worship of Mammon, or 
the practice of degrading vices. I received directly the 
following poem, which for justness of sentiment, power 
of thought, and true poetic expression, will bear com- 
parison, I think, with any poem produced on this conti- 
nent by a writer of equal age, seventeen. Equally with 
the older and more widely known members of that 
talented family, he has by example and precept, by 
tongue and pen, given steady and substantial support to 
every genuine reform of our time and country. God 
bless the Burleigh family, and grant that their posterity 
through coming generations may never dishonor their 
ancestry of the nineteenth century. That is as much as 
we need ask or hope for. 

THE CHURCH POLLUTED. 

[Written on the sacrilegious conversion of a Church into a Brew- 
ery, in the City of Providence ; and the first published poem of the 
author, George S. Burleigh."! 

God of the holy, pure, and just, 

How are thy courts dishonored now, 
Thy altars trampled in the dust, 

Where holy men were wont to bow, 
And praise was heard and thanks were given, 
And supplications rose to Heaven I 



ft8 THE CHURCH POLLUTED. 

Hushed is the voice of warning there, 
The swelling song, the spiritual hymi^ 

The morning and the evening prayer 
That rose above the arches dim, 

And sacrilegious ruin smiles 

Amid the desolated aisles. 

Rude hands have marred the hallowed walls 
Where loud Hosannas oft have rung, 

And sons of Belial crowd the halls, 
And work those holy things among; 

And fires of death are burning on 

The fragments of thine altar-stone. 

There man shall hear no more again 
The voices of thanksgiving rise ; 

That " house is made the robber's den," 
Those courts " a place of inerchandize ; " 

And vile blasphemers gather where 

The holy man once bent in prayer. 

The losel song, the scoff and jeer, • 
Shall rise with sounds of drunken strife, 

And bitter curses greet the ear. 

Where once were heard the words of life, 

And praise was given from heart and lip, 

By men in holy fellowship. 

And where the child was taught to go 
To taste the streams of mercy flowing, 

Will pour a tide of death and woe 

More blasting than the siroc's blowing. 

And burning as the lava-tide 

That sweeps down Etna's groaning side. 

And will ye all in silence now 

The weapons of your warfare bury, 

Nor stamp the shame upon his brow 
Who thus pollutes the sanctuary ? 

Nay, rather with new zeal press on 

Until the victory be won. 



CRACK UP. " 59 

And speak for yon dishonored hall 

Where fast will pour the tide of woe, 
Or even the stones beneath its wall 

Will frown upon ye as ye go, 
And every tile upon its roof 
Will thunder out its stern reproof! 

The following incident, and the use I made of it, may 
serve to illustrate further my method of turning passing 
events to account for the furtherance of the cause and 
the instruction of the parties immediately interested. 
While serving the public in Rhode Island, I had occasion 
to spend the night at the village of Woonsocket, and as 
there was no public house kept in the village on tempe- 
rance principles, I was under the necessity of taking 
lodgings at a hotel where intoxicating liquors were fur- 
nished to all who desired them. Just after the clock 
had struck the hour of nine, some very respectable look- 
ing gentlemen who were sitting around the bar-room 
fire, engaged in an exercise which they called " cracking 
up." The object of the game seemed to be to determine 
which of the individuals should pay for the drink of the 
company. The important question was decided by the 
tossing up of a piece of coin and its fall near or remote 
from a certain crack in the floor previously designated. 
The services of the bar-keeper were then required to 
prepare for the party some intoxicating compound, of 
which each swallowed his glass with evident gusto. It 
was suggested to the mind of the writer, while the scene 
described was passing before him, that the individuals 
thus engaged did not, in their minds, associate their 
practices with the probable consequences to those con- 
nected with them by the most tender ties. The following 



60 CRACK UP. 

article, which was written in the bar-room immediately 
after witnessing the interesting ceremony, and which 
found place in the village paper the following day, was 
intended to suggest to them the probable consequences 
of their recklessness and folly. 

Crack up ! crack up ! the clock strikes nine, 

We liave not drank for half an hour ; 
Say, will you choose, or rum or wine, 
Or brandy's stimulating power ? 
Come, fill the glass 
And let it pass, 
Till sorrow, care, and thought are gone, 
And exiled reason quits her throne. 

Come, jovial boys, crack up ! crack up ! 
And fill again the maddening cup. 
What though our wives sit quite alone, 
And muse on hopes and pleasures gone ? 
Though bitter thoughts their bosoms bum, 
The while they wait for our return. 

Let all that pass, — 

Come, fill the glass ; 
We '11 drink to love that never dies 
Till from our hearts affection flies. 

Crack up ! crack up ! come, fill again 

The accursed cup with hquid fire ; 
And now, its contents let us drain 

To sleeping babes and hoary sire ; 
To mother dear, though drowned in tearfl^ 
And bending with the weight of years. 
Bid sorrow flee 
And drink with glee, 
Though babes may need a father's care 

From wretchedness and want to save. 



SHOOT BUT don't HIT FOLKS. 6X 

And thougli we bring the time-bleaclied hair. 

Of parents sorrowing to the grave. 
Come, fill again the accursed cup, 
And let us drain ; Crack up ! crack up ! 

My first extempore speech was made in Warren, R. I. 
It is quite an era in the life of one who is destined to 
devote years to the business of pubHc teaching from the 
platform or desk, when surrounding circumstances enable 
him, for the first time, to emancipate himself from the 
slavery of notes. Wljile acting as agent of the Rhode 
Island State Society, I visited the town of Warren. I 
was entertained at the home of a clergyman, the pastor 
of a large church in town, whose congregation embraced 
a number of men pretty largely engaged in the liquor 
business. If my memory is not at fault, one of them 
was a distiller. With the business, which I should be 
likely to condemn, so largely represented in his flock, 
he was deeply anxious, of course, to have the lecture of 
the most unexceptionable character. 

The hour for the meeting at length arrived, and dur- 
ing our walk from his house to the church he took oc- 
casion to express to me, in the kindest possible way, his 
views as to the proper manner of handling the subject. 
He thought the conciliatory method the best ; that severe 
denunciation of men, even manifestly wrong, rarely bene- 
fited them or others. 

I was troubled. I did not wish to stir up a tempest 
in his congregation, and yet there was a great duty to 
be performed, to set forth the truths of this important 
subject faithfully. I repeat, I was troubled and not a 
little embarrassed. The church was crowded, and a 
superannuated clergyman of the Methodist church, good 



62 FATHER bonnet's PRAEYR. 

old Father Bonney, was requested to offer prayer. He 
ascended the pulpit and prayed ; and it was a prayer in- 
deed, such as sometimes lifts a man off his feet to an 
elevation from which he seems to see the earth and its 
little ant-like inhabitants and insignificant affairs as a 
sort of dissolving view beneath him. He asked his 
Father and our Father for just what he wanted and for 
nothing he did not want. For the poor drunkard he 
besought restraining and reforming grace. For the suf- 
fering wife, the grace of patience and a Christian hope 
for a more happy future. For the neglected, shamed, 
and abused children, that God would, in mercy, preserve 
them from the contaminating influence of a wretched 
father's example. Nor did he forget the distillers and 
liquor sellers of Warren. It was a sensible prayer for 
just those blessings which all praying people in that 
assembly had just then in mind, and, of course, their 
hearts responded to the words of the supplicant. No 
mention was made in that earnest petition of the Sand- 
wich or the Fejee Islands, of the missions in heathen 
lands, or of any matter entirely foreign to the occasion, 
as there generally is in the prayers of men who have no 
hearty interest in the cause of temperance, and yet are 
asked to pray for it. 

The voice of the old man ceased, and all my trouble 
and embarrassment was gone. I arose to address the 
congregation with my manuscript before me. Some- 
thing, however, I wished to say on points of local inter- 
est, which were not touched in the manuscript. I would, 
therefore, say a few words on these by way of prelimin- 
ary. I became interested in the points I was consider- 
ing, and exceedingly anxious that the congregation 



FIRST EXTEMPORANEOUS SPEECH. 63 

should see them in precisely the right light, for they 
were of immense importance, at least, so it seemed to 
me, just then. A few words more on another impor- 
tant point, and then I thought I would resort to my 
manuscript. But the important points multipled as I 
discussed them. The machine was fairly under way, 
and ran on and on, and I could not get on the brakes, 
could not even get to them. I spoke for nearly an hour 
and a half, and never turned a page of my manuscript. 

I was instructed by that experience, that what is really 
wanting to success in extemporaneous speaking, is 
that a man discuss a subject in which he feels a deep 
interest, and one concerning which he has acquired some 
positive knowledge tvJiicJi he feels anxious to impart to 
other's ; that he have a tolerable acquaintance with the 
language he is about to use, and that he shall be so in- 
tent on accomplishing some desirable, practical result by 
his efforts, that he will forget himself, and have not a 
thought of what his audience may possibly think of his 
performance. Under those conditions, a man who has 
good digestion may venture to dispense with notes. 

Some friend sent me a copy of a local paper contain- 
ing a notice of that lecture which pleased me not a lit- 
tle. It was nearly as follows : " The State Temperance 
Agent, Dr. Charles Jewett, delivered a public discourse 
on that subject in the Baptist church during the past 
week. Our opinion of his lecture our readers will gatlier 
from a brief anecdote. Two gentlemen were once watch- 
ing with considerable interest the evolutions of a danc- 
ing party, and as the dancers successively whirled past 
these observers, they compared opinions relative to their 
several performances At length, one stalwart fellow 



64 STRONG DANCING. 

possessed of uncommon energy, and a very stout pair 
of cowhide boots, passed them, and the way those boot- 
heels came down upon the floor was a caution. 'What 
do you think of that style of dancing ? ' asked one of 
these gents of his companion. ' Well,' replied the other, 
'he doesn't dance so handsomely as some men but he 
does dance confounded strong.' " 



CHAPTER V, 



A COWARDLY ATTACK. 



" Smith's hat " — Giving up the lancet — My co-workers — A sick wife 
— Trouble — A visit to Boston — Dreaming in Rhyme — Laugh and 
be fat ! — Encouraging progress — Doubt and uncertainty — A wife's 
counsel — A timely suggestion — Seventy Dollars I 

The condemnation of the liquor traffic by the popular 
vote in Providence, the largest city of the state, and in 
many of the country towns, and a pretty vigorous effort 
to inflict the penalties of law on shameless violators, 
roused the wrath of the liquor sellers, and led to a most 
cowardly assault, under cover of darkness, on one of our 
prominent and very faithful fellow-laborers, Judge Wil- 
liam Aplin. He was assailed on his way home from his 
office at about ten in the evening, by two ruffians, with 
the evident intention of getting him into a sack and 
taking him — we know not where. An accomplice was 
near with a horse and carriage, who, on the failure of 
the ruffians to accomplish their purpose, drove rapidly 
away. The Judge, though not a large man, was a very 
active and energetic one, and taught the scoundrels that 
there is vigor in the muscles of a cold water man. His 
assailants were never legally identified, although there 
was little doubt in the minds of the people as to one of 
them. He lost his hat in the struggle, and when com- 
pelled to fly on the approach of parties, whom the shouts 
of the Judge for help had called to the spot, he was un- 

(65) 



6Q GIVING UP THE LANCET. 

able to recover it. Many gentlemen who saw the hat 
next morning, exclaimed at once: "That is Smith's 
hat." The Smith referred to was the landlord of one 
of the city hotels. Others said, " Let us see whether 
Smith comes abroad this morning with his usual head 
dress." The landlord appeared with a new hat. It was 
whispered that Jewett's turn would come next ; but I 
was never assailed, though some of my personal friends 
felt some anxiety for my safety. Parties offended by my 
course, however, relieved themselves by growling and 
scowling, and by the utterance of big oaths on the side- 
walk in front of my office. 

During the year 1837, I had relinquished my practice 
as a physician, and accepted an agency under the Rhode 
Island State Temperance Society, to travel through the 
state and devote myself to the instruction of the people 
in reference to the great points at issue between that or- 
ganization and the advocates of license and the drinking 
customs — to aid in organizing the friends of temperance, 
where they were not already organized ; and, in general, 
to labor for the advancement of the cause. The execu- 
tive committee of the State Society had been instructed 
by a vote at the last annual meeting, to employ an agent ; 
and under those instructions I had been engaged. 

Pledges had been given at that annual meeting by 
delegates representing the local societies in all parts of 
the state, of financial support to the State Society in 
carrying out the policy decided upon, of employing an 
agent, liberally scattering through the state temperance 
publications, and in extending their operations generally. 
I was not so well acquainted with the value of such 
pledges, in general, then as I am now, or I should never 



MY CO-WORKERS. 



6T 



have yentured on an agency, relying for support on a 
treasury to be thus replenished. The great crash of 
1837 had shut down the gates of many of the manufac- 
turing establishments, and the laboring population, very 
many of whom were owing me for past professional ser- 
vices, scattered, during the year of my agency, in all 
directions, and left quite too poor to pay their bills to 
my collectors. 

This was a sad blow, financially, to lose thus the re- 
sults of years of service, while every bill I owed was 
quite sure to find me. Still, I kept at work in the lec- 
turing field, not doubting but that before the year should 
close the local societies would redeem their pledges, and 
I should receive the very moderate salary stipulated. 
They failed to do so, however, and so much of my salary 
as was paid was mostly raised by a few friends in the 
city of Providence. A very considerable portion of it, 
however, remains unpaid to-day. I do not chronicle 
these unpleasant facts in a complaining spirit or with a 
view to reflect on the good people of Rhode Island. 

Of my fellow laborers in Rhode Island, a great pro- 
portion of whom have passed away, I could never speak 
but in terms of respect and affection, while I remember 
their personal kindness to me and their great faithful- 
ness in the cause. I despair of seeing any better men 
in the world than good Dr. Clark, Peres Peck, Daniel 
Anthony, Peleg Wilbur, and John Kilton of Coventry ; 
than good Deacon Brown or William Green of East 
Greenwich, or that band of noble men who, in our long 
and stern war with a wicked system, stood at their post 
of duty in Providence like oaks rooted by the sunshine 
and the storms of a hundred years. Oh, what men they 



68 A SICK WIFE. — TROUBLE. 

were ! William Peabody, Henry Cusliing, S. S. Ward- 
well, John C. Nichols, James Eames, Willis Ames, Judges 
Aplin and Branch, Samuel Wheeler ; and some of the 
younger who still survive, Amos C. Barstow, Sylvester- 
Salisbury, and others. How freshly memory brings their 
familiar faces before me, and how I love to record their 
faithfulness and unselfish devotion to the work of reform ! 

At the close of the year I resigned my agency and 
purposed to return to the practice of my profession. 
Friends in the city urged me to locate fAere, as it was 
thought I could not fail, with nearly ten years of pro- 
fessional experience and troops of good friends in the 
city, to secure, at least, a fair practice, the avails of 
which would support my young family. I opened an 
office on Christian Hill, and began to receive a fair share 
of professional calls, when the severe illness of my wife 
kept me at home for weeks. It was an attaek of hem- 
orrhage from the lungs, and for a time I feared a fatal 
issue ; but a kind Providence otherwise ordered. She 
recovered, and during her convalescence events occurred 
which resulted in sending me once more into the tem- 
perance vineyard. Those events seem to me worthy of 
narration with some degree of particularity. 

During the preceding winter, that of 1839, 1 had been 
sent as a delegate to represent the Rhode Island State 
Temperance Society in a convention held in Boston. It 
was one of the largest, and most enthusiastic I have ever 
attended. Thinking it possible that I might be called 
upon to make some slight contribution to the interest of 
the occasion, I jingled some thoughts in rhyme, in which 
I gave a historical account of a wonderful dream which 
had recently visited me. In this dream I had seen some 



A VISIT TO BOSTON. b9 

queer things, and heard very remarkable utterances in 
the vicinity of Still-House Square, in Boston. 

It had been arranged to have the convention continue 
in session two days, and on each evening to have a great 
popular meeting, addressed by gentlemen selected by a 
committee for that service. It happened that I was 
among the number selected, and when called upon to 
address the convention, I concluded my speech, which I 
had purposely made very short, with the recitation of 
" The Dream, or The Rumseller's and Rumdrinker's 
Lamentation." In one part of the recitation I person- 
ated an irate rumseller, and gave utterance to the usual 
sentiments of that class of persons. After him came 
the poor drunkard, and in a style peculiar to the most 
noisy and uproarious of that class, I gave expression to 
their sentiments, objections, and wrath in view of the 
measures of the temperance party. How the exercise 
was received by the vast audience it is not proper for me 
to state. The reader shall learn from the statement of 
a very excellent man and popular writer who was pres- 
ent, and whose peculiarities qualified him to appreciate 
fully the hits that were given to the opposition in that 
rather novel way. The only apology I had then or now 
have for the very extraordinary course I pursued on that 
occasion, is found in the fact that the notion was becom- 
ing prevalent that to those not especially engaged in the 
enterprise, temperance conventions were very dull, neces- 
sarily so. It seemed important to dissipate such a de- 
lusion, else we should soon lose the public ear, and thus 
a serious blow would be struck at the reform. I hon- 
estly think that, at the time, the exercise was useful in 
the way indicated. There was no literary merit in the 



\ 



70 LAUGH AND BE FAT. 

article. It was its adaptation to the peculiar circum- 
stances by which we were just then surrounded, with 
perhaps' a tolerable personation of character, that gave 
it etiect. 

In an article published in the " Sons of Temperance 
Offering," from the pen of Rev. A. W. M'Clure, occurs 
the following passage : 

" We have seen some laughing in our time ; but de- 
<3idedly the most extravagant, uproarious, and ecstatical 
burst we ever witnessed was at Dr. Jewett's recital of 
his poem, ' The Rumseller's and Rumdrinker's Lamen- 
tation,' as given at the great Convention held at the old 
Marlboro' Chapel in Boston, January, 1839. In reading 
this effusion in cold blood, at this distance of time, and 
under great change of circumstances, it is difficult to 
see anything about it sufficient to cause that deafening 
cachinnatory explosion, and its long resounding rever- 
berations. But, at that time, when the ' fifteen-gallon 
law ' was in all its glory, the satire was most ticklishly 
apropos ; and never did ridicule seem keener, or more 
free from venom. Above all, the doctor's delivery justi- 
fied what the ancient rhetoricians have said of the im- 
portance and effectiveness of manner. The whole 
densely-crowded audience was thrown into a paroxysm 
of laughter such as can never be exceeded in the same 
length of time. The fat man rolled in his seat like a 
pudding in a boiling pot. The lean man doubled him- 
self up into a hard knot, then threw himself back in a 
rigid spasm, and at last twisted himself into a corkscrew, 
undergirding his poor ribs with both hands to keep him- 
self from being sliaken to pieces. The tremendous roar 
burst up into yells of delight, and shrieks of orgastic 



ENCOURAGING PROGRESS. 



71 



merriment. When the most furious stamping and clap- 
ping seemed too tame an expression of applause, men 
seized hoid of each other, aiid exchanged mutual thumps 
of congratulation. Even grave doctors of divinity took 
to tiiwacking the pew rails with their stout walking- 
staves, leaving lasting mementos of their uncontrolla- 
ble mirth. For many a day after did the intercostal 
muscles of the company retain the sorest reminiscences 
of that season of unparalleled drollery. We never ex- 
pect to see the equal of it ; nor do we wish to. One 
such laughing- spell is enough for a lifetime, and affords 
* a joy for memory."' 

The representatives of the press who were present 
reporting the proceedings of the convention, obtained 
copies of this rhymed trifle, and it got a pretty exten- 
sive circulation through the Boston papers as well as 
through the country journals. It was also struck off in 
handbill form and sold by the newsboys. " Buy a La- 
mentation, buy a Lamentation, sir?" constituted a con- 
siderable part of the sidewalk music for a day or two. 
The convention was notable for the character of its 
material as well as its numbers. It was estimated that 
over three hundi-ed of the clergy of the state were 
present. It was presided over by the Hon. John Tap- 
pan, one of the earliest and most devoted friends of the 
reform in the Eastern States. 

Some of our younger brethren, who now manifest a 
commendable zeal for the advancement of the cause in 
connection Avith the temperance orders. Sons of Tem- 
perance, Good Templars, Temples of Honor, (fcc, seem 
to entertain the opinion that little or nothing had really 
been done in the good work of reform, until the Orders 



72 DOUBT AND UNCERTAINTY. 

were established and the Washingtonian movement was 
started in Baltimore. I beg such to remember, after 
reading the preceding sketch, that we are still in the 
thirties, and that the Order of Sons of Temperance was 
not established until the year 1840, and that the first 
meeting of the five original Washingtonians at Balti- 
more, was on the eve of the 5th of April, 1840. 

As early as 1839, there existed in the United States 
and- the Canadas fifteen temperance papers, ably con- 
ducted, and all advocating the comprehensive pledge, 
^. e., the pledge against all intoxicating liquors, by what- 
ever name called ; and in many of the towns and villa- 
ges of the New England States more than half the 
entire population of the town were members of temper- 
ance societies pledged to abstinence. Men are liable to 
err, sadly, in connection with the movements of the 
present time, if they hold incorrect notions as to the 
history of past operations intended to secure the same 
end. 

For special reasons I dropped the history of my labor 
in R. I., to give the history of the convention at Boston, 
and my connection with it. Returning in thought to my 
humble home in Providence, I resume the history of 
events in 1839, which had an important bearing on my 
future, as connected with the temperance reform. 

My wife was slowly recovering from the very threat- 
ening illness I have before described, and was able to 
sit up for some hours each day. I was thus enabled to 
attend to the few professional calls I was then receiving, 
hoping in time to extend my practice, and expecting to 
devote myself to it for life. But " God's ways are not 
as om* ways." I had other service to perform, it seems, 



A wife's counsel. 



73 



in connection with the temperance reform, and was 
introduced to it as follows. 1 received, one evening, 
through the mail, an invitation from a committee, signed 
by Moses Grant of Boston, chairman, to prepare and 
recite, before a convention to be held in that city, a 
temperance poem. 

" Will you undertake the service ? " asked the sick 
wife. "No," I replied. " I cannot spare the time. I 
have a bill of $70.00 to pay in about four weeks for my 
small stock of medicines," (I had opened a small 
drug store in a part of my house,) " and must bestir 
myself and raise the money, which I cannot do if I sit 
down to write poems." 

She ui;ged me, notwithstanding, to comply with the 
invitation, suggesting that the Boston committee would, 
probably, pay me something for the labor, and expressing 
the belief that, somehow, a good Providence would pro- 
vide if I set about the required service with an earnest 
purpose to help forward a good and great cause. Long 
before this I had learned that it was sometimes good 
policy for a man to listen to the counsel of a good ohris- 
tian wife, if he had been fortunate enough to obtain one. 
I yielded to her persuasion and set about the work. I 
was hard pressed for time, and wrote the last eighteen 
lines of the poem in the library of my excellent friend, 
Dea. Moses Grant of Boston, after reaching that city, 
and the evening before the day of the convention. 
This great gathering of good men, like that of the pre- 
vious year, was to continue in session two days ; the 
evening of each day to be devoted to public addresses, 
and other exercises. The recilation of the poem was 
advertised as a part of the exercises for the first evening. 



74 A TIMELY SUGGESTION. 

The president of the Mass. Temperance Union, Hon. 
John Tappan, presided both day and evening. The 
poem, which had the merits of being understandable, 
and having a practical aim, if no other, was well received 
by an assembly of more than three thousand people, 
numbering some hundreds of the clergy, and very many 
men of the other liberal professions, justly distinguished 
for great learning, and the possession of the Christian 
virtues. Immediately after the recitation of the poem, 
a gentleman in the audience arose, and inquired if it 
would be practicable to have it printed, so that delegates 
to the convention could obtain copies to take home with 
them. Deacon Grant replied that the poem should be 
printed during the night, and be ready for delivery at 
the door of the convention room at ten o'clock, the fol- 
lowing morning. Just here. Rev. T. P. Hunt, whom I 
have before introduced to my readers, sprang to his 
feet and made the following brief, but very pertinent 
speech : 

" Mr. President, I am glad that poem is to be printed. 
I think it is worthy of publication, and hope, when 
printed, that the gentlemen delegates present, will buy, 
not a single copy each, but half a dozen each, to dis- 
tribute among their friends, and that they will be willing 
to pay a good price for them, and in that case, perhaps 
our friend, the doctor, will obtain some reward for his 
labor, more substantial than the thanks of this honora- 
ble body." 

It was a timely suggestion, and, from what followed, 
I have no doubt that hundreds of generous brethren 
acted upon that hint. I read the proof-sheets before 
two o'clock in the morning, and on the meeting of the 



SEVENTY DOLLARS, 



75 



convention at ten, a. m., the pamphlet was on sale at the 
door. A good friend of mine, Rev. L. D. Johnson, of 
Rhode Island, attended to the sales, and twelve hundred 
copies were disposed of before the close of the conven- 
tion. After the final adjournment, and when, worn 
with protracted excitement and the broken rest of the 
preceding night, I was about to retire, friend Johnson 
came in, and requested me to go with him to his room, 
where he counted out to me, as the net profits of this 
hurried publication, $70.00, the exact sum to a penny, 
needed to pay that hill at home, which had so troubled 
me, and to meet which I had been advised to trust in 
Providence while I should perform what was regarded as 
a pretty important service to a great and good cause. 



CHAPTER VI. 

INVITED TO A WIDER FIELD. 

Packing up — " Cast down but not destroyed " — A dialogue — Was 
it brotherly or wise ? — A christian hero — A clergyman and three 
churches — The poor house preacher — "If I had let rum alone " — 
Rum and horrors — We " went for " the buckwheat cakes — 
Crane's store—-' What'll you have " ?— " Didn't I call for't, ha ? " 
" You can't cheat me " — Doubted ! 

Soon after my return from Boston, I received an invi- 
tation from the Executive Committee of the Massachu- 
setts Temperance Union, to serve them as a lecturing 
agent. I declined the invitation for the reason which I 
distinctly stated, that past experience had taught me 
not to trust for the support of my family to the treasury 
of an organization, which had no proper financial basis, 
but relied for its support on occasional donations from 
its friends, and collections taken at the close of public 
meetings. I was answered by an inquiry as to whether 
I had any plan to propose for the financial support of 
temperance organizations, and, if I had, to communicate 
my plan to the committee. I suggested a plan which, 
with its working, I shall presently describe more at 
length. It was adopted with slight modifications, which 
did not, in my judgment, improve it, and I was then 
invited to assist in carrying it out. The salary offered 
me was twelve hundred a year, or a hundred per month 
exclusive of traveling expenses. I accepted the invi- 

(76) 



"CAST DOWN BUT NOT DESTROYED/ 77 

. tation, fixed the time for commencing my labors, and 
appointments were at once arranged for me, commencing 
with the ancient town of Dedham, since celebrated in 
connection with the striped pig exhibition. The losses 
I had sustained through the financial crash of '37, the 
stopping of work in the factories, and the sudden dis- 
persion in all possible direction of those indebted to me ; 
as well as by my failure to receive the whole of the 
salary promised me for service in Rhode Island, had 
sadly embarrassed me, and now came the unpleasant 
task of settling up matters with very limited means, 
and of providing for my family, while I, by honest ser- 
vice, should earn something on another field with which 
to commence the world anew. I provided for my family 
a temporary home among my relatives in Connecticut. 
My personal property, even furniture, the gift of rela- 
tives to my wife before her marriage, was, at her re- 
quest, sent to the auction rooms and sold, that the 
avails might aid in paying debts which I had contracted 
while serving the cause of temperance. The time for 
the commencement of my labor in Massachusetts had 
arrived, and yet, after employing all available means, I 
was unable to pay all my debts before leaving. 

That was a gloomy hour. I went down to old India 
Point to take the cars for Boston, and reached the de- 
pot twenty minutes in advance of the time of starting. 
I had thus time to ruminate. In connection with the 
practice of my profession and as a laborer in a great 
work of reform, I had served the state faithfully for ten 
years, and now must leave it with a wife and four child- 
ren to care for, with but little more money than would 
pay my fare to a new field of labor. I paced the plat- 



78 A DIALOGUE. 

form, and presently extended my walk along the length- 
ened piles of pine wood near by, and for a moment I was 
quite unmanned. I may as well confess it ; the boy, 
Charles Jewett, got the better of the man. I sat down 
behind a pile of pine wood, and wept. The warning 
bell of the waiting engine soon roused me. I took a 
seat in the cars and was off. In due time, I reached 
Dedham, Mass., and before a good audience got another 
fair opportunity to assail the wicked system I had long 
been fighting, and in the labor forgot personal griefs 
and embarrassments. 

While on a brief visit to Rhode Island, a few months 
after leaving it under the trying circumstances already 
recorded, a friend reported to me a conversation he had 
had with a very wealthy and excellent citizen of Provi- 
dence the day previous to my departure for Massachu- 
setts, and I will here relate it, as it may give point to 
some suggestions of a practical character. I shall call 
the wealthy gentleman Mr. X., although that was not 
the initial letter of his name. 

X. " Well, they tell me that Dr. Jewett is about to 
leave us." 

F. " Yes ; he goes to-morrow, having been engaged 
to serve the people of Massachusetts." 

X. " I am sorry he is going. We could far better 
spare some others I could name ; for, although his coun- 
sel has not always been wise, nor his measures such as 
I could altogether approve, yet, really, he has been a 
very useful man among us. I think he has done more 
to advance the temperance cause in this State than any 
half-dozen of us." 



WAS IT BROTHERLY AND WISE? 79 

F. *' He leaves us, I am told, under very straitened 
circumstances." 

X. " Yes ; it could hardly be otherwise. He is not 
a good financier. A man who mounts some reformatory 
hobby, and undertakes to revolutionize opinions and 
customs which he thinks wrong, is not likely to get very 
rich m the operation." 

Reader, Mr. X. was reputed to be worth a million. 
He was quite an active member of one of the churches 
of Providence, a man of strict integrity, and, withal, a 
a thorough temperance man so far as his own habits 
were concerned. He was a liberal supporter of Christian 
missions, foreign and domestic, and, in fact, of every 
other benevolent movement of the day except the tem- 
perance enterprise. He had given to that, indeed, but 
should you multiply his gifts to that cause by ten, the 
product would not equal what he ammally gave to some 
other enterprises. You will say, perhaps, that he lacked 
confidence in the permanency of the reform, or did not 
approve of all the measures which the state or local or- 
ganizations adopted to advance it. Very likely. But 
why should a wealthy and Christian gentleman condition 
his support of the temperance cause on the perfection 
of the measures adopted to promote it ? He is not thus 
critical and exacting in relation to other enterprises 
which he liberally supports. Ask such a man if he ex- 
pects an exhibition of faultless wisdom in the manage- 
ment of the foreign missionary cause, of home missions, 
or the bible or tract societies, — ^he will answer you in 
the negative. Why then does he demand perfection in 
temperance operations as a condition of his financial 
support of them ? Reader, perhaps that question may 



80 A CHRISTIAN HERO. 

with great propriety be addressed to you. Will you con- 
sider it ? 

The words of Hiat Christian and temperance million- 
are, Mr. X., as reported to me by my friend F., wounded 
my feelings at the time beyond my power to express. 
The unruffled composure with which he had seen me 
leave the state penniless, with a wife and four children 
to provide for, I should have been able to excuse if he 
had been silent on the subject, or if his words had not 
been reported to me, for I should have concluded that 
amid the multitude of his cares he had not become fully 
acquainted with my condition, or that he did not fully 
realize the amount of service I had rendered the state 
by ten years of hard labor. But when his words were 
reported to me I became convinced that he knew all, and 

yet, Oh, the miserable selfishness that could clutch 

a million and see a fellow laborer whose services to the 
public he fully appreciated go empty handed out of the 
state ! If such selfishness comes of the possession of 
wealth, God in mercy grant I may never be rich ! 

Before considering further the history of the cause in 
the glorious old Bay State, I will take a parting glance 
over the field in Rhode Island, and see what memory 
can gather up worthy of record. 

And first, it brings before me the name and valuable 
services of my successor in Ehode Island, the Rev. 
Thomas Tew. He was the agent of the State Tempe- 
rance Society for many years, and was one of the most 
devoted, untiring, and energetic laborers in the work of 
reform I have ever known. He not only contributed by 
his public discourses and the distribution of temperance 
publications over his very limited but important field of 



A CLERGYMAN AND THREE CHURCHES. 81 

labor, to correct and elevate the public sentiment in re- 
lation to the use of intoxicants and the liquor traffic, 
which lie heartily hated, but he prosecuted violators of 
the law in the courts, and in short by every proper means 
within his reach he sought to crush a wicked system and 
to promote not only the virtue of temperance but all 
those Christian virtues which constitute the brightest 
ornaments of personal character and the strongest bul- 
wark of the state. He literally wore himself out with 
hard and continuous labor. Friends who enjoyed the 
privilege of personal intercourse with liim when he was 
no longer able to labor, have assured me that, worn and 
wasted as he was with disease and stretched upon a bed 
from which he had no expectation of rising, he retained 
to a wonderful degree his wonted cheerfulness, and 
while with feeble voice he discoursed with them of the 
future triumph of the cause, which revealed itself to his 
faith and hope, his eye would kindle with excitement, 
and then only would he express a wish, if it were pos- 
sible, for continued life, that he might still further con- 
tribute to hasten on the blessed consummation. In an- 
swer to the inquiry of a friend as to the state of his 
mind and feelings, only a brief period before the spirit 
passed to its everlasting rest, he answered with a smile 
and the words, Happy, Happy ! 

Although, in general, the results of the liquor system 
are of like character everywhere, yet in certain places it 
gives us peculiar manifestations of its power, which are 
worthy of special consideration. The town of Foster, 
in Rhode Island, is one of those localities. I was in- 
formed while laboring in that town that in three differ- 
ent sections of it attempts had been made in time past 



82 A CLERGYMAN AND THREE CHURCHES. 

to bulla ^ church, and that such was the low state of 
morals in those places at that time, induced mainly by 
intemperance, that the parties engaged in building had 
fallen out by the way, got into a bitter quarrel, and that, 
as a consequence, work on the church had, in each case, 
been discontinued ; and the frames, partially enclosed, 
had been left to rot. Three frames in that condition 
had at different times proclaimed to passers-by the state 
of morals in the town of Foster. 

Another result had been the drunkenness of a clergy- 
man, on a funeral occasion, so that all recollection of the 
mournful occasion had been obliterated from his poor 
addled brain before he left the stricken home. At the 
period when this happened, the decanter was brought 
out at funerals, as well as at weddings and other joyful 
occasions. This versatile agent could help men to weep 
as well as to laugh. The clergyman referred to had 
drank when he first arrived, because he had been riding 
in the cold and was chilly. He had drank again before 
the funeral service, which was held in the house, to give 
him inspiration for that service. Before leaving for the 
grave-yard, a mile or more distant, another glass must 
be taken to guard against cold and anticipated fatigue. 
On returning from the cemetery, another drink must be 
had, because he had been exposed to the cold and was 
somewhat fatigued ; and now they sat down to dinner. 
His reverence, by this time in a very sad condition, was 
placed at the head of the table, and not seeing the wife, 
whom he had just helped to bury, in her usual place at 
the table, he turned his glazed eyes to the bereaved hus- 
band and asked, " Why, where is your wife ? isn't she 
at home ? '* That, I was told, was the last of his public 
services as a minister. 



THE POOR HOUSE PREACHER. 



83 



A citizen of Foster, when drunk, fell with his head on 
the hearth and so near the fire that the heat spoiled 
both eyes, destroyed the vitality of the nose so that it 
sloughed entirely off, leaving only a couple of unsightly 
holes in the face where a nose had been, burned the 
parts about the mouth, so that in healing all that was 
left of that very essential organ was a small hole into 
the buccal cavity, through which food could be intro- 
duced, and this hole was not central, but quite on one 
side. Besides this, the scalp had been so heated on the 
top of his head, that not only did it slough for a space 
as large as the palm of one's hand, but even a portion 
of the bone exfoliated. These losses of structure were 
replaced, in the healing process, by a sort of gristly or 
cartilaginous substance, and a permanent discharging 
ulcer remained on the top of the head for the rest of 
his life. He had been, I was told, an inmate of the 
poor house for fourteen years, and all this time, when 
the weather was warm and favorable, they would, at his 
request, place him outside the door where he could feel 
tlie influence of the sun and the fresh air. There this 
wretched remnant of a man sat and preached temper- 
ance to everybody that would pause and listen to him. 
" I don't know who you are, for I can see nothing ; but 
whoever you are, I want you to look on me and be 
warned to let rum alone. Look at me now. This is all 
the work of rum, and you see there is no chance for me 
ever to be any better. I shall never see the sun nor the 
faces of men any more. I must go to my grave as I 
am ; and yet I might have been as well off and as happy 
as you, as any one, if I had let rum alone." 

And thus he was exhorting as long as I remained in 



84 RUM AND HORRORS, 

Rhode Island. What may have been his history since 
I left the state I know not. Was not this pretty power- 
ful preaching to the eye as well as to the ear ? and yet, 
reader, if yon haUtucdly use intoxicating liquors, you 
are probably so blinded and influenced by that terrible 
habit and the deceptive power of the drink, that you 
could have looked on that wretched object, listened to 
his touching appeals, and gone directly back to your 
home or hotel and taken another drink. 

I will here record still another result of the liquor 
traffic in Foster. A poor fellow, naturally kind hearted 
and well disposed when in possession of his reason, un- 
der the bewildering, maddening influence of liquor, com- 
menced a quarrel with his wife, and soon became so ter- 
ribly excited tliat she, in alarm, fled to a neighbor's for 
safety, leaving behind a fine little boy about four years 
old, their only child, who was the very idol of his father, 
and on whose account, therefore, she had no fears. 
Seeing that his wife, the object of his blind rage for the 
moment, had escaped him, he seized the child by its 
limbs and dashed its head against the granite jambs of 
the fireplace, causing its death. He was immediately 
arrested, securely bound, and placed under the care of 
keepers. 

A reliable gentleman, a leading friend of the cause, 
who subsequently resided in the house where the deed 
was done, gave me the information, and added, " When 
the remains of his child were about to be buried, the 
wretched father, now thoroughly sober, begged to be 
permitted to look upon its face once more before it should 
be forever hidden from his sight." The request was 
granted, " and," said my informant, " I never pitied any 



A BELLIGERENT QUAKER. 



85 



human being as I did that man. I forgot his cruel act 
in his present agony. As he looked into the coffin upon 
the bruised and discolored features of his once beautiful 
boy, he bent forward and placed first one cheek and then 
the other, now wet with streaming tears, upon the face 
of the child, and moaned and groaned as though his 
very heart would break." 

Few of my readers, who are habitual and pretty free 
consumers of intoxicating liquors, would have drank a 
glass the less after witnessing that scene. Not that I 
suppose them to be heartless or unfeeling men, or delib- 
erately and consciously wicked and brutal ; but because 
the terrible agent which you have allowed to obtain a 
ruling power over you, has deceived you and accustomed 
you to reason falsely on this one subject, so that facts 
seen or arguments presented do not, generally, lead you 
or others similarly situated, to sound and logical con- 
clusions. 

A pleasant incident occurred at Pawtucket, while I 
was serving the R. I. State Temperance Society, the re- 
lation of which, in a brief chapter, may carry with it a 
valuable moral, or convey valuable hints to the reader. 
I had just reached the village, and was in consultation 
with that stern old veteran in the cause, Abraham Wil- 
kinson, a very belligerent Quaker, who never knew the 
meaning of the word fear, and whose hatred of the 
whole liquor system was so intense that, had he been 
Autocrat of Rhode Island, he would have roasted a rum- 
seller as readily as a Thanksgiving turkey, i. e., unless 
the fellow would solemnly promise to quit the destruc- 
tive business. While conversing with the old patriarch, 
a gentleman, his nephew, came in, who seemed to have 



86 WE " WENT for" 

some private business with him, for, taking him to a dis- 
tant part of the room, he conversed with him for some 
minutes in an undertone. I heard enough to convince 
me that some movement was on foot for the enforcement 
of the penalties of broken law on a liquor seller. My 
ear caught the words : " We want just one man more, 
and one who can be relied on." 

I stepped across the room, and addressing the stranger 
said : " Please accept my services, sir." He looked at 
me doubtingly. Uncle Abraham said: "He'll do," 
and then introduced me to the gentleman as Dr. Jewett, 
the temperance agent. He was satisfied, and we crossed 
the street to a store in which a convicted rumseller was 
under keepers. An effort was to be made to convey him 
to the jail in Providence, and a mob of perhaps a hun- 
dred of the liquor fraternity were gathered about the 
door, declaring in language more emphatic than elegant, 
that there was not enough of the — cold water fanatics 
in town to take that man to Providence ; that blood 
would be spilled if the thing were attempted, &c. 

Here, now, was a predicament, with a very few men 
in it. What was to be done ? There were five of us, 
all told. Jencks the officer, the two Wilkinson's, one 
other man (name forgotten) , and the writer. We made 
our way through the crowd into the store where the cul- 
prit was in custody. Three stout wagons, previously 
engaged, just then were driven up in front of the store 
by men who knew how to handle the reins, and when all 
was ready, we took the convicted seller of illegal drinks 
by the collar on each side and cleared our way through 
that swearing, sweltering crowd, helped him to a seat in 
the middle wagon with a sufficient guard, while other 



THE BUCKWHEAT CAKES. 



87 



friends occupied the front and rear wagons. It was the 
work of less than half a minute after we left the store. 
Just as we leaped into the wagons some of the rowdies 
sprang for the wheels to upset the vehicles, but the 
drivers were too quicli for them. Crack went the whip, 
and those who would have whole bones must clear the 
track. Away we went at a pretty rapid pace for four 
miles, over one of the best roads in the United States, 
followed a part of the way by a number of wagons load- 
ed with brutal men, swearing vengeance. We lodged 
our prisoner safely in jail, and prepared to return. For 
one, I expected a battle on our way back, and for lack 
of a breech-loader or a Remington six-shooter, I helped 
myself to a three foot oak club of reasonable size from 
the jailer's woodpile, and so we started. Instead of 
going back by the way we came, however, our drivers 
took the old road for Pawtucket, and in about forty min- 
utes we were eating buckwheat cakes and honey at Uncle 
Abraham's, wliile the poor satellites of the liquor sellers, 
who had followed us half way to Providence, were still 
lying in wait by the turnpike road-side to pelt us with 
stones on our return. The usually stern visage of Un- 
cle Abraham took on quite an amiable expression as he 
passed us the buckwheats, and remembered that there 
was just one rumseller less in Pawtucket. 

About this time another incident occurred in Paw- 
tucket, which caused considerable swearing but a great 
deal more laughter ; for when a practical joke is played 
on even a bad man, his most attached friends will often 
join in the laugh at his expense. Crane's liquor store, 
on the Massachusetts side of Pawtucket bridge, (the 
river constitutes the line between the states there,) was 



88 crane's store. 

regarded as a destructive place, and yet as he kept his 
liquors in a back room, into which none but the right 
sort were admitted, it was difficult to prove him a vio- 
lator of law. To the proper understanding of the story 
it is necessary that the reader should know that Dr. 
Jewett, the temperance lecturer, can personate charac- 
ter pretty accurately, so his acquaintances will tell you. 
He can, when he chooses, be as drunk, to all appear- 
ance, in one minute or less, without drinking, as most 
men can with free drinking and the lapse of consider- 
able time. The imitation is so accurate that the most 
practiced eye cannot detect the counterfeit. I was in a 
barber's shop, near Pawtucket bridge, conversing with 
the very intelligent and gentlemanly barber, when two 
young men, gloriously drunk, rushed in with, " How are 
ye, Joe ? Give us the time o'day. Ha ! what's up ? 
Put 'em through my boy ! Go it boots ! ha ! " That 
was about the style. To print the talk of men under 
such circumstances soon uses up your interrogation and 
exclamation points. 1 saw my game at a glance, and 
tipping a wink to the barber to " keep dark" and ^' lay 
low," I instantly assumed the disguise of drunkenness, 
and began to complain to them that the Pawtucket folks 
had got to be so mighty temperate that a poor fellow 
who's a stranger in the place couldn't get a glass o' grog 
to wet his whistle for love nor money. 

These generous fellows assured me in a very sympa- 
thetic way : '' There's liquor enough in Pawtucket, if 
you know where to find it." 

"Jest so ; but there's the trouble, you see. I'm a 
stranger in the place and how should I know ? " 

" Come along," said they, " and we'll show you." 



WHAT LL YOU HAVE 



89 



So away went the trio, arm in arm, over Pawtucket 
bridge, the doctor in the middle, and a roaring, shout- 
ing rowdy on each side. Reader, had you been there, 
as a stranger, and looked on, it would have, bothered 
you to have decided which was the drunkest of the 
three. 

They are at Crane's door, and one goes on up the 
street ; the other volunteering to do the honors of the 
city. 

The rowdy and the doctor, both pretty well " set up," 
walk right in with the dash peculiar to men in their 
condition, and the young rowdy who " knows the 
ropes," pushes right along to the rear or liquor room, 
his much obliged friend, the doctor, being just at his 
side. Young rowdy draws for himself (he is a regular 
customer) and drinks. 

" Now stranger, what'll you have ? " 

Thinking to call for something they had not got, the 
doctor answers : " If I take anything, I'll take a glass 
of ale." 

There was no ale in sight, and he supposed there was 
none in the building. 

" Sartin," says rowdy, " all right, the ale's in the 
front store." So Crane and rowdy lead on to the beer 
pump. 

'• Now," says the doctor, with an occasional hiccup, 
and an amazing amount of particularity : "I want you 
to understand, now, that I don't go none of your swill 
stuff. If your beer's all right'! shall go it, and if it isn't 
I shan't." 

"It's all right," says Crane, and he pumps up a full 
glass, the foam piling up on the surface as big as a tea- 



90 ^'didn't I CALL for't, HA ? ^' 

cup or a cat's head, and passes it to the boozy doctor. 
With that careless disregard for all else but the drink, 
usually manifested by such as he appeared to be, he lifts 
the glass to the level of his mouth, and with a tremen- 
dous puff blows the foam into Crane's face, and all over 
his vest. He took it in good part, simply brushing off 
the foam, for such blundering heedlessness is expected 
of men half drunk. The doctor tastes the beer. 

" It's sour." 

" No it isn't," says Crane, " it's first-rate." 

" You lie," roared the doctor, " I guess I know beer, 
but " (dropping his voice,) " never mind, we won't quarrel 
about it. But what do you say now — on the whole ; had 
I best drink it or not ? You see how it is with me ; 
what do you say ? Speak it now like a man, what do 
you say ? " 

Thus appealed to, Crane replied, " On the whole I 
guess I would not drink any more to-night. I think 
you have got enough." 

The doctor concluded he was right, and set down the 
glass. 

" But I'll pay you for it." 

" No," says Crane, " if you don't drink it you needn't 
pay." 

'' But look here," says the doctor, " didn't I call for't, 
ha ? " 

" Oh, yes ! of course you did." 

" Well now, I want you to understand that I'm no 
sneak, anyhow, and when I calls for things I pa^s for 
'em ; what's to pay ? " 

" If you pay anything, it'll be three cents." 

" All right," and fumbling in his pocket the doctor 



" YOU can't cheat me." — DOUBTED ! 



91 



drew forth the three coppers with his right hand, and 
counting them out with great precision, one by one, into 
the open pahn of the left hand, he exclaimed : 

" There you have it. That's right, ain't it ? That 
makes it all square 'twixt you and I, don't it ? " 

Crane, glad, no doubt, to get rid of so irritable and 
awkward a customer replied, " Yes, all right." 

" Well, then," said the doctor,. " good bye to you," 
and out he went. 

In half an hour he was before a large audience in one 
of the churches, and while commenting on the then 
present status of the liquor system, told the audience 
where he had been and what he had seen. 

The talk of the village, the following day, was largely 
on Mr. Crane, Dr. Jewett, the beer and liquor trade, 
and the practical joke played by the doctor on the old 
veteran liquor seller. Crane insisted, however, that 
there was no counterfeit about that drunk, that it was 
the genuine article ; and he asked, " Do you think I don't 
know when a man is drunk ? You can't cheat me. 
there. A man may reel and pitch about like a drunk- 
ard, but he can't make his eye drunk. That man's eye 
was drunk. Why, I stood close to him when he was 
fretting about the beer, and my eye wasn't more than 
two feet from his, and that eye of his was drunk. You 
can't cheat me." 

When Crane found that it was quite impossible to 
make even his own customers believe that the doctor 
was drunk (for the barber, at the shop, saw him put on 
the disguise of drunkenness in an instant, and so stated 
to all inquirers), he became very wrathy, and declared 
t^at any traveling humbug of a lecturer who would 



92 DESERVED A THRASHING. 

play such a game on a decent, respectable citizen, 
deserved a thrashing, and he swore by all current 
oaths that he would " pound that scamp to a jelly " if 
he could get his eye on him before he should leave 
Pawtucket. 

The doctor heard of his terrible threats, and took his 
next morning's exercise in front of Crane's store, pacing 
backward and forward, and affording the dispenser of 
rum and heer all the opportunity he could have desired 
to execute his threats. His courage, however, was, like 
much of his beer, only foam or froth. He wisely kept 
his head within his den. 



CHAPTER VII. 



REVIEW OF THE PAST. 

The Convention of 1838 — The great petition — A committee worth 
remembering — Looking ahead — Hats off, gentlemen ! — The law 
of 1838 — Wholesale dealers to the front!— They meet — A Paix- 
han shell — The lesson of past events— Study and reorganization. 

Mj readers, who were not residents of Massachusetts 
from the year 1835 to 1840, will better understand the 
history of my labor in that state, with that of the lead- 
ing friends' of the reform, and the events which fol- 
lowed, after the perusal of a brief chapter on the pro- 
gress of the good work during the period intervening 
between the dates above given, and on the condition of 
the cause in the state when I commenced my labor in 
May, 1840. 

Prior to the year 1838, the power to grant licenses 
for the sale of intoxicating liquors within the State of 
Massachusetts, was vested, by law, in a Board of Com- 
missioners for each county, whose term of office was 
three years. As the temperance sentiment of the state 
grew stronger, and hatred of the liquor traffic more in- 
tense and universal, the people began to clamor for the 
abrogation of the license system. As the law stood, 
the end they desired could only be attained by electing 
County Commissioners who would refuse to license. 
The triennial election of those officers, therefore, turned 

(93) 



94 THE CONVENTION OF 1838. 

on the temperance question, or rather on the known 
views and purposes of the nominees in regard to license. 
Many sharp battles had been fought at the polls in the 
election of these officers before the year 1837. In a 
majority of the counties, anti-license Boards had been 
elected, and as a matter of course, the prohibitory 
clauses of the law alone were operative. Violators of 
the law were very generally prosecuted, and as a conse- 
quence, the open traffic had, in some of the counties, 
ceased to exist. The law was occasionally but secretly 
violated, like all other laws, but the penalties were too 
severe to be surely incurred by open violations. Thus, 
on a part of her territory, Massachusetts had a trial of 
prohibition before the year 1837. 

Everywhere the results were satisfactory, not only to 
those whose active efforts had secured the change, but 
to all lovers of good order and good morals. 

The immediate diminution of crime and pauperism 
was perhaps the most striking result of the new order 
of things, but its influence to increase productive indus- 
try and thrift among the people, to promote domestic 
and social happiness, and a more general attention to 
religious observances, were features scarcely less 
marked. 

These results of partial prohibition converted thou- 
sands to our doctrines and practice who had resisted all 
our arguments, or who had been too indifferent to the 
whole matter to listen to them, and greatly stimulated 
eflbrt to secure, to the entire state and all its interests, 
the benefits certain to result from general prohibition. 

At a State Convention, held in Boston in February, 
1838, it was resolved that an effort should be ma^"^ to 




JOHN PIERPOXT. 



THi: GitEAT PETITION. Uv 

secure, from the Legislature of the state, at its next 
session, a law prohibiting the traffic. A form of peti- 
tion had been prepared, to be circulated through the 
state for signatures. Though not at that time a citizen 
of the state, I was present on that occasion, and heard 
the form of petition read to the convention, by its 
author, the Rev. John Pierpont. It is too important a 
portion of the literature of this great reform to be for- 
gotten. For clearness of statement, strength of argu- 
ment, and rhetorical finish, it has never been equaled 
by any form of petition presented to any legislative body 
in this country, since we were a nation. My readers I 
am sure will thank me for giving it place in this con- 
nection. They will find it profitable reading. If read 
in every family, in the presence of all its members, on 
New Year's day of each coming year, it would conduce 
far more to the happiness of our families than the cus- 
tom of New Years' calls, with their usual concomi- 
tants. It is much to be regretted that there are so few 
in our land, with all our colleges, capable of reading 
properly such a document in public. John Pierpont was 
one of the most impressive readers to whom I ever lis- 
tened. All eyes of that immense audience were riveted 
upon him, while reading, and so perfect was his enunci- 
ation, that not a word or syllable was lost by any indi- 
vidual of the throng, whose organs of hearing were not 
defective. 

To the Honorable the Senate^ and House of Representa- 
tives of Massachusetts^ in G-eneral Court assembled. 
The undersigned, citizens of Massachusetts, ask leave 

to call the attention of your honorable body to the laws 



^? THE GREAT PETITION. 

now existing in this commonwealth, licensing the sale 
of intoxicating liquors, for drink, to the injury, as your 
memorialists conceive, of the individual, — ^both buyer 
and seller — and to the serious detriment of the best in- 
terests of the State. 

It is not the purpose of your memorialists to call into 
question the patriotism of those men by whom, informer 
days, those laws were first made, or of those by whom 
they have since been modified. In their day, they, 
doubtless, acted according to their light. We wish that 
they who shall come after us may be able to bear wit- 
ness for us that we have acted according to ours. 

We do not propose to exhibit to your body a picture 
of drunkenness, in any of its degrees, or of its effects 
upon the miserable victim, or upon the often more mis- 
erable ones who are bound to him by the ties of the 
family, or of society. Your own eyes, when directed to 
the subject of human misery in this community, to its 
objects and its sources, will be struck by more appalling 
scenes than any that we can paint ; — nor when you see 
and consider them, will you ask us for evidence that, 
with comparatively few exceptions, misery flows, di- 
rectly, or by necessary consequence, from intoxicating 
drinks. Tliese, the laws of our Commonwealth allow 
to be sold for the express purpose of being drunk ; and 
this, too, now that we know, as our fathers did not, that 
they are always poisonous to the human system ; and 
that, in just the degree in which they are drunk, they 
are destructive to the bodily and mental energies, the 
moral character, the highest interests of every one who 
drinks them. Can it, then, be for the best interest of 
the community that they should be drunk ? Can it 



THE GREAT PETITION. 



97 



consist with the character of a highly moral commimitv 
that they should be sold by permission, and under the 
protection of its laws ? That a priesthood should be 
ordained for the very purpose of pouring this poison 
into the veins of the body politic — a priesthood, whose 
only office, so far as it is recognized by the laws, is ex- 
clusively a w^ork of destruction, without one healing 
tendency, one salutary influence — a priesthood, who, if 
not engaged in this work, — not laboring " for the public 
good" in this icay — are faitliless to the ministry to 
which they are elected and anointed by the law ! 

We respectfully ask — Is it right to license man thus 
to mar the image of God in his brother man ? right 
to give him authority thus " to sell insanity," and deal 
out sure destruction ? If it is right, why should any 
man be forbidden to do it ? If not right, why should 
any be permitted ? Why forbid all but " men of sober 
life and conversation " to do this if it is right. Why 
allow " men of sober life and conversation " to do it, if 
it is wrong ? Will the poison be less active or less 
fatal, if it is dealt out with a steady hand ? Will the 
buyer be the less a drunkard, because the seller is a 
sober man ? May this pollution be poured out upon 
society only by clean hands ? Or, is it the presumption 
of the law that, in such hands, it will do no harm ? — 
that a man '• of good moral character" w^ill sell, not to 
drmikards, but to sober men like himself! Is it, then, 
more " for the public good " that the sober men of the 
Commonw^ealth should be made drunkards, than that 
they who are already drunkards, should remain such ? 
Can that vvhich always works private evil, conduce to 
the public good ? Can that which is bad for all the 
5 



98 THE GREAT PETITION. 

parts, be good for the wliole ? Can evil be converted 
into good by multiplication ? Can wrong be legislated 
into right ? 

Under the laws of this Commonwealth, the hody of 
the citizen — unless, indeed, he be poor and in debt, — is 
jealously protected. Not a hair of his head can, with 
impunity, be harmed. The law lifts up its trumpet 
voice against personal injury, so long as it is merely 
physical. But, when the physical evil becomes linked 
in with moral, — when the destroyer takes hold of soul 
and body together, to drag them into the pit, — then, 
the arrows of the law are returned into their quiver — 
its thunders are laid aside, and its shield is spread over 
the pit into which they both go down ! 

It may be too much to expect, from human laws, that 
they protect the morals of society from corruption, and 
even from temptation. But is it too much to ask that 
they will not throw open the doors of temptation, and 
hold them open, that the " simple ones " may go down 
through them into the chambers of death ? — Is it too 
much to ask that the sale of intoxicating drink may be 
prohibited by penal laws ? It is said, we are aware, 
*hat this will be an infringement of the citizen's rights. 
We answer, — then are those rights already infringed. 
All, but a few, are already forbidden, by penal statute, 
to retail ardent spirits. Is it a greater infringement of 
rights, or a bolder stretch of power, to restrain the few, 
of " good moral character," than it is to restrain the 
many of an opposite description ? 

Again, — may not our neighbors — our children — be 
protected by penal statute, from "practices against 
their health " and life, as well as the lower orders of crea- 



THE GREAT PETITION. 99 

tion ? By penal statute we protect our ^s^ from poison, 
why not our men ? By penal statute — by a thousand 
dollars fine, and a year's nnprisonment in the county 
jail, — we punish the man who shall " expose afiy 'poison- 
ous substance with the intent that the same should be 
taken and swallowed by a neigiibor's cattle." Why not, 
then, if " with the intent that it be taken and swal- 
lowed " by the neighbor himself? So that sickness, 
delirium, death ensue, what matters it by what name 
the draught be called ? To the sufferer, or to society, 
is the injury the less, because the delirium is longer 
continued, and the death-pains more protracted ? If I 
be willingly accessory to my brother's death, by a pistol 
or cord, the law holds me guilty ; — but guiltless if I mix 
his death-drink in a cup. The halter is my reward if I 
bring him his death in a bowl of hemlock ; — if in a glass 
of spirits, I am rewarded with his purse. Yet, who 
would not rather die — who would not rather see his 
child die, by hemlock than by rum ? The law raises me 
a gallows if I set fire to my neighbor's house, though 
not a soul perish in the flames. But I may throw a 
torch into his household — I may lead his children 
through a fire more consuming than Moloch's — I may 
make his whole family a burnt-offering upon the altar of 
Mammon, and the same law holds its shield between me 
and harm. It has installed me in my office, and it 
comes in, to protect alike the priest, " the altar, and the 
god." For the victims it has no sympathies. For them 
it provides neither ransom nor aA'enger. 

But there is an avenger. While these sacrifices are 
smoking on their thousand altars, through the length 
and breadth of our land. The Ruler of the nations is 



100 THE GREAT PETITION. 

bringing upon us the penalties of his laws, in the con- 
sequences of breaking them. Even now, He who ren- 
ders to every land, as to every man, according to its 
works, is showing us that He is as strict to visit with 
suffering those who violate His organic and moral laws, 
as He is ready to accumulate good upon those who ob- 
serve them. The fields of our great country, which He 
has charged with the elements of plenty, — which are, 
every year, waiting to be bountiful, — which He waters 
" that they may bud and bring forth, and give seed to 
the sower and bread to the eater," are becoming like the 
field of the slothful man of old. They are '' overgrown 
with thorns ; — nettles are covering the face thereof ; — 
and the stone walls thereof are broken down." The 
hand and the mind of the cultivator are struck with the 
palsy of intemperance. — A great portion of the bread 
corn which the land — grateful for even niggardly culture 
— pours into the husbandman's bosom, is snatched from 
his children's mouths for the craving maw of the distil- 
lery ; — and when that, which God gave as the supporter 
of life, has been converted into its destroyer, the vessels 
that waft the destruction to the nations on the Baltic, 
the Mediterranean, and the Black seas, bring back from 
those nations, and at tlieir own price, the very bread of 
which we have first robbed ourselves, in order that we 
may ruin them. 

Nor does the temperate and industrious citizen who 
sees the execution of these laws of a Righteous God, 
escape his full share of their penalties— for, while his 
heart is made to bleed at the sight of the sufferings 
which the demon Intemperance is scattering broad-cast 
around him ; — while he feels himself discouraged and 



THE GREAT PETITION. 



101 



humbled that while his own hand and voice are lifted up 
against the destroyer, they are lifted up in vain, for that 
the destroyer is still upheld by the laws ; — his purse is 
made to bleed as freely as his heart, in the form of " poor- 
rates," and augmented prices ; — he must feed a drunken 
neighbor's family, and at the same time pay double 
price for the bread that feeds liis own. 

Your memorialists feel that, on this subject, it is not 
more their right than it is their duty to remonstrate. 
Would those who throw this stumbling-block in their 
brothers' way, take care of such as fall over it — or 
could the curse of drunkenness be confined to its own 
ranks, and the dead be made to bury their dead, — the 
evil might he borne; though borne, even tlien, with a 
profound sorrow, with a divine pity, for those who had 
fallen under the curse. Even then, philanthropy, which 
is but another name for the christian spirit, would prompt 
us to intercede for our suffering brethren, and to plead 
with those Avho legislate for the common weal, intreating 
them to interpose all the barriers in their power to keep 
back the waves of this destruction. But, so it is not — 
so it cannot be. In the body politic, "if one member 
suffer, all the members suffer with it." If the laws of 
a Christian state will open these seminaries of poverty, 
vice, and sorrow, the same laws 77iust open, near them, 
to receive their graduates, alms houses, criminal courts, 
penitentiaries, prisons, and sepulchres. And, while these 
are fitting up, and filling up, the earnings of the indus- 
trious, the savings of the prudent must be taken from 
their pockets, by the hand of the same laws, to guard 
and support them. 

Is it necessary " for the public good" that these fath- 



10.2 THE GREAT PETITION. 

omless fountains of sin and misery should be everlast- 
ingly kept open ? that the few should fatten by feeding 
on the many ? that the whole head of the state should 
be kept sick in the paralysis of its industry, — its whole 
heart faint in the corruption of its morals, — that the 
whole body should grow leprous, though it yet may live ? 
Is the life which would be left in the body of this Com- 
monwealth, after intoxicating drinks shall have done 
their work upon it in taking away its strength and soul, 
such a life as God breathed into it at its birth, and 
designed for it at its maturity ? We cannot but think 
that the Sovereign of all States designed for this a 
nobler life than Intemperance, aided by law, will leave 
it — a higher destiny than such a destroyer, with such 
support, will ever allow it to fulfill. 

Your memorialists are aware — we use the words of 
the chief magistrate of a sister state — that " The cause 
of Temperance, and that philanthropic movement which 
has already done so much to check the ravages of that 
fell destroyer of individual health and happiness, and 
that prolific source of crime and misery. Intemperance, 
depend mainly, for their ultimate and perfect success, 
upon moral causes ; but, they may, yet, receive aid and 
support from legal enactments." Your memorialists 
believe tliat such enactments would now be regarded 
with favor by the great mass of this community; and, 
even if they are not in all cases, enforced, that they 
would, yet, do much to check the evil which all good 
men deplore. Your memorialists, therefore, pray that 
a?Maws, authorizing the sale of intoxicating drinks, 
v/ithin this Commonwealth, may be repealed ; and that 
such sale may be made penal with such exceptions, and 



LOOKING AHEAD, 



103 



under such conditions as to your honorable body may 
seem good. And your petitioners shall ever pray &c. 

Tiiat form of petition was extensively circulated 
through the state, and received many thousands of sig- 
natures. When the Legislature assembled, these peti- 
tions were poured in upon it from every section of the 
state, and were referred to a joint committee of the 
House and Senate. The entire membership of that 
committee I am unable to state, but with two of its 
members I afterward became personally acquainted, and 
for reasons which I am about to state, they should be 
had in lasting remembrance by all friends of temperance 
and sound legislation. The Hon. James G. Carter, of 
Lancaster, and Samuel B. Wolcott, of Hopkinton. My 
information concerning the action of that committee, I 
derived from the gentleman first named, with whom I 
had the pleasure of laboring for years in the good cause, 
after I became an agent of the Mass. Temperance Union. 
The Committee held repeated consultations in relation 
to the matters submitted to them, and finally agreed to 
report in favor of the legislation petitioned for. 

Mr. Wolcott, who was distinguished for his skill in 
drafting bills, was requested by his associates to draw 
up a bill in conformity with their joint conclusion. He 
did so, and at the next meeting of the committee, he 
submitted his draft. It was read, its various sections 
subjected to the most careful scrutiny, after which, the 
committee unanimously voted tp report it to the House. 
Wiien the committee were about to append their names 
to the report, Mr. Wolcott remarked in substance as fol- 
lows. " Gentlemen, in accordance with your wishes and 
opinions, in which I entirely concur, I have drawn that 



104 HATS OFF, GENTLEMEN ! 



bill. I fully believe it to be in accordance with the 
principles of right and justice, and as a committee, and 
as conscientious men who have had assigned to us a 
specific duty, I see not how we can do otherwise than to 
report it, or some bill aiming at the same result. As an 
individual I am prepared to sign it, but before doing so, 
or inviting you to do so, 1 wish to express my opinion 
very decidedly, that in signing it, we, individually, sign 
our political death warrants. Should the bill become a 
law, as I have no doubt it will if we report it, it will 
bear heavily on a large amount of capital invested in 
the liquor trade, and it will interfere indirectly with the 
indulgences of many of our people ; indulgences hurtful 
to the parties, and injurious to the public, but to which 
thousands will cling with great tenacity. The law, 
though just and right, will therefore encounter a storm 
of opposition. The party in power, to which we belong, 
will suffer from its passage, as the party in minority will 
seek to make out of it capital against us. Our party, to 
save itself, will repeal the law, and we shall be regarded 
as having done it great injury, and they will probably 
find it necessary to sacrifice us to appease the wrath 
of the opponents of the law. 

It is an unpleasant dilemma, gentlemen, for those 
of us who may have political aspirations, but I see not 
how, as honest men, we can do other than to report to 
the legislature a bill in exact conformity with our con- 
victions of right and justice. I shall therefore sign the 
bill." " He did so without the shake of a single nerve," 
said Mr. Carter, '^ and inspired by his noble example, 
we followed him, and the bill went to the house with 
our unanimous approval." ^'I did not," said Mr. Carter, 



THE LAW OF 1838. 105 

" share his opinions or fears in relation to the fate of the 
measure, for I thought it would commend itself to the 
good sense and justice of the people, and that the law 
would stand." The result, however, proved the sagacity 
of Mr. Wolcott, as the reader will learn from the perusal 
of these pages, and the entire transaction bears testimony 
to tlic possession, on the part of Mr. Wolcott, of an old 
fashion devotion to principle, never more conspicuous in 
the case of any legislator with whom ancient or modern 
history has made us acquainted. Header, let us thank 
God that the race of heroes is not yet extinct, or, at 
least, that it was not in the year 1838. 

As an important item in the history of the reform in 
this country, I place before the reader, in this connection, 
a copy of the law of '38. It was enacted in the month 
of April, and was something more chilling than an "April 
shower" to the rum interests of Massachusetts. 

AN ACT TO REGULATE THE SALE OF SPIRITUOUS LIQUORS. 

Be it enacted, §"c. 

Section 1. No licensed innliolder, retailer, common yictualler, 
or otlier person, except as hereinafter provided, sliall sell any brandy, 
rum, or other spirituous liquors, or any mixed liquor, part of -which 
is spirituous, in a less quantity than fifteen gallons,^ and that deliv- 
ered and carried away all at one time, on pain of forfeiting not more 
than twenty dollars, nor less than ten dollars for each offence, to be 
recovered in the manner and for the use provided in the twenty- 
sixth section of the forty-seventh chapter of the Revised Statutes. 

Sec. 2, The county commissioners in the several counties may 
license, for their respective towns, as many apothecaries or practis- 
ing physicians as they deem necessary, to be retailers of spirituous 
liquors, to he used in the arts, or for medicinal purposes only ; and 
the mayors and aldermen of the several cities may, in like manner, 
and for like purposes, license apothecaries as retailers for their sev- 



106 WHOLESALE DEALERS TO THE FRONT. 

era! cities ; and the court of Common Pleas in the county of Suffolk, 
in like manner, and for like purposes, may license apothecaries or 
practising physicians as retailers in the town of Chelsea, which 
licences shall be granted in the same manner and under the same 
restrictions now provided by law for licensing retailers ; provided 
that the number of persons so licensed shall not exceed one for 
every two thousand inhabitants, and in towns containing less than 
two thousand inhabitants, one person may be licensed ; and provid- 
ed, further, that in such cities and towns where there is no apothe- 
cary or practising physician, such other person or persons may be 
appointed as aforesaid, as may be deemed proper by said county 
commissioners, and no person so licensed shall sell any spirituous 
liquors, to be drunk in or about his premises, on pain of the forfeit- 
ure provided in the first section of this act. 

Sec. 3. All licenses hereafter granted to innholders, retailers, 
and common victuallers shall Ue so framed as not to authorize the 
licensed persons to sell brandy, rum, or other spirituous liquors ; and 
no excise or fee shall be required for such a license. 

Sec. 4. The provisions of all laws now in force, inconsistent with 
this act, are hereby repealed. 

Sec. 5. This act shall take effect on the 1st day of July, 1838, 
but shall have no operation upon any licenses granted previous to 
that time. 

Approved by the Governor, April 19, 1838. 

Prior to the passage of this law, the magnates of the 
liquor trade, the distillers, importers, or wholesale deal- 
ers, had been content to keep in the back-ground, and 
let tlieir subordinates, the retailers, occupy the front 
rank in the defence of the trade. Only when the latter 
had violated grossly the restrictive provisions of former 
license laws, or sold without license and were about to 
suffer imprisonment for the non-payment of fines and 
costs, did the aristocracy of the trade ever appear at the 
front, and then only to go bail for their servants the re- 
tailers, as otherwise their shops would be shut up, and 



THEY MEET A PAIXHAN SHELL. 107 

some of the pipes through which the heads of the liquor 
department were wont to irrigate a drunken world with 
rum and whisky, would be choked up. 

Although these honorable gentlemen, lords of the 
brandy pipe, the wine butt, or the money bags, often ex- 
pressed, in the hearing of respectable citizens, their pro- 
found contempt for the petty dealers, knights of the 
toddy-stick, they would, as stated, back them in the 
courts, because they knew quite well that they were a 
necessary part of the machinery — the finger ends of an 
organization of which they constituted the head, trunk, 
and limbs, and they understood that it would go hard 
with the said head and trunk if the fingers should be 
cut off. Now that a blow had been struck in the pas- 
sage of the new law which threatened the entire retail 
trade, the dealers in liquor by hogsheads and cargoes 
saw the necessity of coming to the front. They held 
meetings in Boston for consultation, and prepared an 
address to the public, which was signed by Daniel L. 
Gibbins, a millionaire, who had accumulated his wealth 
by the liquor trade, and eleven others, all wealthy men 
and in good repute, except as connected with their traf- 
fic. We cannot afford space here for the very plausible 
and ingenious document sent forth by these twelve liquor 
dealers, or for the courteous but scathing and exhaustive 
review of it by L. M. Sargent in a series of letters which 
appeared in the columns of the Mercantile Journal. 
The friends of temperance in Massachusetts had great 
reason to congratulate themselves on such champions as 
God had given them in John Pierpont, Lucius M. Sar- 
gent, and others, at this important period of the reform. 
These men hurled no pebbles into the camp of the 



108 • THE LESSON OF PAST EVENTS. 

enemy, but great explosive shells, which made terrible 
havoc where they fell ; and in those days, bad men, who 
with their bad hearts had sound heads, did not, without 
gresit inducements, place themselves within the range 
of our reformatory artillery. 

The ten letters of Mr. Sargent to that committee of 
liquor dealers, and his twelve letters to the Plon. Harri- 
son Grey Otis of Boston, who, in Feb. of 1839, headed 
a petition for the repeal of the law, together constitute 
the most trenchant and exhaustive discussion of all im- 
portant points at issue in this warfare that has ever been 
given to the public. I purpose soon to reprint them, 
with what I hope will be regarded as a fitting introduc- 
tion ; and I know that all who are now engaged in 
earnest efforts for the prohibition of the liquor traffic, 
will thank me for placing in their hands so complete an 
armory of keen and polished weapons. 

The law was repealed in 1840, and the state fell back, 
so far as legislation was concerned, on the law of 1837, 
leaving the question of license or no license with the 
county commissioners. There was, therefore, no gen- 
eral throwing open the flood-gates to a deluge of rum 
on the repeal of the law of 1838, for in a large majority 
of the counties our commissioners still refused to license 
the traffic, and only the prohibitory part of the law of 
1837 was, therefore, operative. The friends of the 
cause were in no wise disheartened, and at the annual 
Convention which immediately followed the repeal of 
the law, expressed in no doubtful terms their determin- 
ation to battle with the wicked liquor system till its an- 
nihilation should be secured. 

This speedy repeal of a law which had been passed 



THE LESSON OP PAST EVENTS. 



109 



by overwhelming majorities, and hailed by good men 
everywhere as the harbinger of unnumbered and ines- 
timable blessings, certainly must have some lessons of 
wisdom to teach us if we are but tolerable scholars. 
What are they? First of all, the necessity of such 
thorough organization of the friends of temperance 
where we seek improved legislation, that we can, if need 
be, make ourselves felt in the acquisition or retention of 
power by the great political parties, without which they 
can neither help their auxilliaries or save themselves. 
The liquor party are always organized, and at a word 
from their leaders, every liquor store, dram shop, saloon, 
or bar-room in a county or state, becomes a recruiting 
station for any party to which the liquor interest may 
for the time ally itself. These "head-quarters" are al- 
ways open for six days and nights of every week, and 
at least one-third of the number are open also on the 
seventh day — the Sabbath. They need no famous ora- 
tors or bands of music to attract a crowd, for they have 
other unfailing attractions, — their liquors. They have 
their orators and often their music, and these are always 
welcome ; but they are by no means dependent on these 
adventitious aids, as they have, as before stated, attrac- 
tions which will draw many men from their homes who 
are miles away, and detain them there often for the en- 
tire day and evening, waiting, like Mr. Micawber, " for 
something to turn up." That something turns up often 
— the bottom of the glass, as its contents are poured 
through dry tliroats into inflamed stomachs. Whatever 
issues may divide the parties of the day, there is one 
object, the attainment of which sucli a company always 
regards as of^ paramount importance — the continued 



110 THE LESSON OF PAST EVENTS. 

sale of intoxicating liquors, with the least possible re- 
strictions. Nine persons in ten of such a company will 
sacrifice every other plank in their political party plat- 
form to the prospect of securing a full supply of liquors 
for the future. No matter whether our immense inter- 
est in the production of iron be up or down, — whether 
commerce prosper or be annihilated, — whether the credit 
of the government be preserved or destroyed,- — whether 
its debts are paid or unpaid, — whether the cotton crop 
be one or ten million bales, — all these, with the added 
questions relative to the public health and morals, the 
interests of education and the wise or unwise govern- 
ment of the country, are, in the estimation of the crowd 
in a liquor saloon or beer shop, as nothing to the great 
question relative to an ample or short supply of stimu- 
lating, maddening drinks for the future. The settled 
purpose to secure a full supply of drink overrides all 
other questions. Shrewd politicians know this, and do 
not fail to respect an end or object which such masses 
of our voting "population have so much at heart. 

Our wishes and purposes as friends of abstinence and 
prohibition are directly opposed to those of the class we 
have named. Politicians who may sit in legislative 
halls, executive chairs, or on the judges' bench, cannot 
please them and us at the same time. They, therefore, 
being intent on retaining power and place, look sharply 
at both parties to see which it is safest for them to dis- 
please. Our opponents are thoroughly organized, we 
are not ; they place the support of the liquor trade first 
on the list of objects to be attained. through tbeir politi- 
cal action ; we put the attainment of other ends before 
the annihilation of the liquor traffic, in the use of our 



STUDY AND EE0RGANI2:ATI0N. 



Ill 



franchise. While matters stand thus, ought we to 
wonder that the wishes of the liquor folks are respected 
before ours ? It is idle and worse than idle to complain 
of the inevitable, and our defeat at tiie polls and in leg- 
islative halls is ijievitable until tlie conditions are altered ; 
until politicians clearly see that they will lose more by 
offending us than the opposing party. 

Thus much we are taught, not only by the repeal of 
the lavv^ of 1838, but by many events which have since 
transpired. 

Beneath all this, we come upon another great truth, 
incidentally taught us by the events we have contem- 
plated, which must receive more attention than here- 
tofore, viz : — The power of alcoholic liquors or other 
stimulant-narcotics, over men who become addicted to 
their use, is wonderful, almost unlimited. No other 
class of substances ever brought to bear upon the bodies, 
and through these on the minds, affections, and morals 
of men, can compare, in the measure of their influence, 
with intoxicants. That power must be studied, not only 
by all who would be successful reformers, but it must 
be better understood by the masses. It is not enough 
to know that it exists. We must have the philosophy 
of it. The minds of men must be as familiar with it 
as they are with the laws of gravitation. To this end, 
and for the attainment of knowledge on many other im- 
portant points, our local or primary temperance organi- 
zations, must, even on our most advanced fields, such as 
Maine, Massachusetts, and Vermont, become schools of 
instruction, not in rituals and points of order merely, 
but in relation to great fundamental principles, to the 
everlasting God-ordained laws which underlie the whole 



112 STUDY AND REORGANIZATION. 

subject of intoxicants, with their attendant mischiefs 
and miseries. This reorganization of our forces, and 
the progressive education of the elements which com- 
pose them, is a work which no legislature can do for 
US-; nor any other body or class of men outside our own 
ranks. It is a work which ive must do, or the great 
movement in which we are engaged will never be con- 
summated. We should bring to its consideration the 
best talent we have among us, a burning zeal for the 
advancement of the cause, united with and tempered 
by a spirit of forbearance and conciliation, which shall 
result in crystallizing as it were, into organizations 
and modes of procedure, all the wisdom of the temper- 
ance host from all sections of our country. Thus and 
thus only can we organize victory. 

That series of victories which was gained by the 
Prussian armies over the French forces, during the late 
Franco-Prussian war, was the result not of their courage 
or of their heroic endurance alone. These qualities 
were, during the struggle,- frequently exemplified in a 
splendid manner by the French forces which were beaten. 
The result was due to the skillful plans perfected by 
master minds before a blow had been struck ; to the per- 
fection of their organization, their admirable drill, and 
the precision and celerity of their movements, guided all 
through by some master minds which originally planned 
the campaign. Courage and heroic endurance on the 
field of battle will be unavailing to those who are carry- 
ins: out a badlv nlanned camnaiffn. 



CHAPTER YIII. 

TREASON. 

R obert Rantoul and Massachusetts Democracy — " Up guards, and at 
them" — A political illustration — A 'shallow Trickster — A laugh 
out of place — Hard at work, but happy — Judge Crosby — Wise 
counsel. 

The loss of the law of 1838 was not effected without 
an example of treason on the part of a professed friend 
of our cause which should not be forgotten, lest the 
truth which Shakespeare puts in the mouth of Mark 
Anthony, should come to be questioned. 

" The evil that men do, lives after them ;" 

Gov. Morton, (for so I must call him, though he oc- 
cupied the Executive chair but one year) — had been the 
President of the ^lassachusetts State Temperance So- 
ciety at one time, and was supposed to be in perfect 
accord with the friends of the reform as to withdrawino^ 
sanction and support of law from the liquor traffic. He 
had been the standing candidate of the Democracy for 
some years, and seemed likely to stand for the remain- 
der of his life, for any chance he was likely to get to sit 
in the Governor's chair. As soon, however, as tlie hnv 
of 1838 was passed, and a pretty decided opposition to 
its continuance on the statute book, had developed itself, 
it began to be whispered that Judge Morton was opposed 

(118) 



114 ROBERT RANTOUL AND MASS. DEMOCRACY. 

to the law, and would lead the opposition against it. 
This was at first regarded as incredible, by those who 
had labored with the Judge, in the cause of reform, 
years before. It proved true, however, and with ninety- 
nine hundreths of the Democratic vote of the State, 
and the votes of the sellers and lovers of liquor who 
bolted from the whig party on account of the passage of 
the law, he was elected, and in return for the help of 
the grog-shops in his election, he, in his message to the 
Legislature, recommended the repeal of the law. He 
did not, however, enjoy long the fruits of his treason to 
the cause, for the good sense of the people, at the very 
next election, sent him into that retirement from which 
he never afterwards emerged. While on the Judges' 
bench he had been much esteemed, as -also for his pri- 
vate virtues, but he could not withstand the temptation 
which prospective official honors presented, and so he 
fell, as thousands have done before him. 

How striking the contrast between his course and that 
of another distinguished democrat of Massachusetts, 
who was, at the time, the most popular man of the party, 
the Hon. Robert Rantoul. He was a member of the 
Legislature when the law was passed, and it not only re- 
ceived his vote, but his hearty advocacy. No voice 
pleaded more eloquently than his, for that protection to 
the wronged and the suffering from the liquor traffic, 
which it was believed that law would afford them. The 
party subsequently committed itself squarely against 
the law and to the support of the claims of the liquor 
party, and it has maintained that position ever since. 
The result has been what the clear-headed and warm- 
hearted Rantoul predicted, it sunk the party to such a 



UP GUARDS, AND AT THEM. 115 

depth that for the last thirty years they have never come 
to the surface. Their championship of the grog-shops 
lost them Rantoul and others of the best men of their 
party. 

I have before stated that the friends in Massachusetts 
were by no means disposed to^ abandon the work before 
til em, on account of the defeat they had encountered in 
the loss of their law. In addition to the regular system 
of educational operations which the Massachusetts Tem- 
perance Union were at the time adopting, and which 
will be more fully described hereafter, they determined 
to secure practical prohibition, if possible, in those coun- 
ties of the State, where under the old law of 1837, 
which was now again in force, the County Commission- 
ers still granted licenses, and hence, when and where, 
in a county, a new Board of Commissioners were to be 
elected, they made special efforts to secure an anti- 
license law Board. Where neither of the political par- 
ties put in nomination men pledged against license, the 
friends of the cause called a convention forthwith, and 
nominated an independent ticket, whom they could trust. 
Repeatedly they elected their ticket over the nominees 
of both parties. Thus by the vote of the people, and 
generally by large majorities, the licensing of the retail 
liquor trade had been condemned in every county of the 
State before the close of the year 1846. 

It astonished professional politicians and wire-pullers 
very much, to discover, as they did about those days, that 
the people, when sober, were learning to dispense with 
their services, and to transact their own business in 
their own way, by open, manly, and direct methods, that 
required no tricks or cu-nning contrivances of theirs. 



116 A PICTORIAL ILLUSTRATION. 

They found themselves ignored altogether. When I 
commenced my labor as an agent of the Massachusetts 
Temperance Union, in April, 1810, I found the friends 
engaged in the efforts I have before described, to secure 
the election of anti-license commissioners throughout 
the State. This was, of course, in addition to the usual 
educational efforts of the Union. A short time before 
leaving the State of Khode Island for my new field of 
labor in Massachusetts, I caused to be published a litho- 
graphic print, intended to convey through the eye to the 
minds of those who mig-ht study it, my view of the then 
existing state of the temperance cause. It was entitled, 

DEATH ON THE STRIPED PIG. 

Some words of explanation will be necessary to the 
proper understanding of its aims and character. 

By reference to the law of 1838, found on a former 
page, the reader will perceive that thereby the sale of 
liquors, in quantities less than fifteen gallons, was prohib- 
ited. That Legislature would not have made even that 
exception, had it not been for the fact that the laws 
of the General Government allowed the importation of 
certain liquors in fifteen gallon casks. To avoid any 
conflict, therefore, with National Legislation, that excep- 
tion w^as made. The opponents of the law called it, in 
derision, " The Fifteen Gallon Law," and, led on by un- 
scrupulous and contemptible demagogues, the meanest 
variety of the genus homo now in existence, they made 
a deal of capital against the law, by asserting that it 
was hard on the " poor man," and '• hard working 
classes," who must be deprived of their accustomed 
stimulants, because not able to buy fifteen gallons at a 



A SHALLOW TRICKSTER. 117 

time, while the favored and petted rich, who could buy 
from the importers, could revel in unlimited luxury in 
the liighest heaven of fuddledum, which is certainly not 
very high. 

When tlie law went into operation, all sorts of devi- 
ces were adopted to neutralize its provisions and avoid 
its penalties. At a military muster held at Dedham, in 
Norfolk county, some mercenary and lawless wag had 
arranged to evade the law by giving a drink to all who 
should patronize a certain wonderful exhibition he was 
prepared to make ; nothing less than a pig striped like 
a zebra from snout to tail. A picture of the wonderful 
animal adorned the tent under which it was exhibited. 
A four-pence-half-penny, or six cents, was charged for 
admission. Of course the pig had been striped for the oc- 
casion with a paint brush, and the trick was rendered per- 
fectly transparent by the first glance. The patrons of 
the show, however, after learning the cheat, were so- 
laced by a glass of grog, for which they were not re- 
quired to pay, and all went on " as merry as a marriage 
bell," until the sheriff, with his posse, gobbled up the 
whole concern, tent, pig, and exhibitor, and took them 
from the field. This despicable device of the liquor 
seller, however, afforded much merriment to that large 
and thoughtless class who will have their laugh, even 
though it be at the expense of a good man or a good 
cause. 

" Tlie watch dog's voice, that bayed the whispering wind, 
And the loud laugh, that spoke the vacant mind." 

Even a very loud laugh, is not, of itself, by any means, 
evidence of a " vacant mind," but a laugh at the mani- 



118 HARD AT WORK, BUT HAPPY. 

fest discomfiture of a good man, or a good cause, is a 
square blow in the face of virtue, and a rich contribu- 
tion to the joy of Hell. I would bite my lip until the 
blood flowed, if I could not otherwise suppress a laugh, 
under such circumstances. The press of the country, 
especially that portion of it controlled by whiskey-drink- 
ing editors, told the story of the Striped Pig with great 
eclat. I determined to turn the popularity of the pig to 
account, and make it, if possible, contribute to the ad- 
vancement of the temperance cause. 

I also published, soon after, a print, which was in- 
tended as a blow at the License System. Large numbers 
of both were sold, and for many years copies might 
be found pasted up in the various workshops of Massa- 
chusetts, the study of which has, I trust, helped to fix in 
many minds, just views of the liquor traffic, and of the 
iniquity involved in licensing it. 

At no period of my life have I labored with more 
pleasure to myself or, in my judgment, more to the profit 
of the enterprise than for the first year of my service in 
Massachusetts. I had not then, to be sure, the experi- 
ence which I now have, and could not then discuss cer- 
tain phases of the subject with so much ability as I 
think I could now, after a further study and discussion 
of the subject for thirty years. I was, however, more 
hopeful then than now of a speedy triumph of our cause ; 
not because I had mOre confidence in the soundness 
of our principles, or a higiier estimate of the benefits 
which would result to all the interests of society from 
their general acceptance and from the practice of absti- 
nence by the masses, but, because I gave credit to the 
friends of the cause, in advance, for more wisdom and 



JUDGE CROSBY. 



119 



perseverance than they have manifested. I conld endure 
more labor then than now. In fact, during the period 
referred to,. I was scarcely sensible that there was any 
limit to my power of endurance. I could then- address 
public assemblies every night of the week, put in an 
.ura service or two on tlie Sabbath, when required, and 
make any number of short addresses to the advanced 
classes of our schools and academies. I wrote monthly 
reports of my travels, and the state of the cause in the 
places visited, for the Massachusetts State Journal, 
besides a great deal else for the press, generally, both 
in prose and verse. With a love for my work which 
made it easy, treated with great kindness by the friends 
of temperance and Christianity everywhere, my labors 
generously appreciated and promptly rewarded, and 
most encouraging evidences that the good work was going 
rapidly forward, what was wanting to render my work 
pleasant ? Nothing. I had not been laboring thus six 
months in Massachusetts, when my salary was raised to 
$1500 a year, without any solicitation on my part, but 
because I was dealing with generous, noble-minded men, 
who believed that I earned it, and therefore, ought to 
receive it. Besides this, I had the happiness to labor 
with a gentleman, my senior in years, and in the service 
of the society, who commanded my highest respect, as 
he did that of all who knew him, and whose superiority 
for ability to plan, and skill, and vigor in executing 
reformatory movements, I have not known, the Hon. 
Nathan Crosby ; since then and for many years a Pohce 
Judge in the city of Lowell. With all this, my domestic 
relations were as pleasant as they could well be. I was 
happy at home, happy in my work, and rejoiced greatlj/ 



120 WISE COUNSEL. 

in the evidence everywhere observable that the cause 
of temperance was advancing. 

As an evidence that I am not mistaken in the opinion 
I have expressed of the ability and tact of Judge Crosby 
as a practical worker and guide in connection with 
reformatory labor, I place before my readers a copy of a 
circular which he penned just after tlie passage of the 
law of 1838, and of which he sent copies to leading 
friends of the cause in every town of the State. I ask 
my readers to study it with attention, and observe its 
practical character. Would it not be well if the friends 
of the cause everywhere would heed his counsels and act 
in accordance therewith. 



To THE Friends of Temperance. 

Permit me to call your attention to a few things of immediate 
importance to our cause. We call for immediate, united, and decisive 
action. The prospect was never more cheering, or right effort more 
successful. The Law now forbids the sale, and no longer stands in 
the way of the application of moral means to banish the traffic or 
use. We are no longer to be told in answer to our remomstrances 
and entreaties, that the statute authorizes it, and says the " public 
good requires it." Let us then awake to new zeal and put forth 
moral ineans as they have heretofore not been known among us in 
the promotion of this great and glorious cause. Our opponents pro- 
fess to approve of moral suasion. Let us then use all moral appli- 
ances to the utmost of our power — early and late— at home and 
abroad — monthly, weekly, and daily — by conversation, social meet- 
ings, lectures, papers, tracts, and song — by associations and individ- 
ual example — by preaching, by exhortation and prayer, and the 
traffic will cease — drunkenness will be known no more — rivers of 
tears will be dried up— scattered families will be gathered together 
again, and songs of praise and deliverance will break forth from 
every flimily and every house in the land. 

Let me urge immediate attention then, to accomplish all this. 




N\THAN CROSBY. 



WISE COUNSEL. 



121 



1st. To your organizations to promote this cause — awake them 
to eiFort — reorganize — or press onward as the case may require. 

2d. Hold frequent meetings — divide your town into small dis- 
tricts and assign to each active man a small territory, or a few fam- 
ilies — and to 15 or 20, each seller and each inebriate — and let every 
man he faithful to his charge. 

3d. Never let a seller or drinker meet you without some friendly 
admonition. 

4th. Take measures to put the Temperance Journal and Almanac 
into all families where instruction is needed to break or soften down 
prejudice; in fact every family should have the paper. It costs SI 2 
per 100 copies, monthly, per year. 

5th. Remember that all your labors in this cause — all your sacri- 
fices in time, in money, in mind or sympathy, go for the preservation 
and happiness of your own family and neighborhood, and for the 
benefit of those who need such aid above all other — the mortified, 
desolated, wretched victims of intemperance. 

6th. Remember too, that deliverance from the evils of the rum 
traffic and use is too great a blessing to be obtained without great labor. 
Would you have angel's joy ? Do angel's work — visit the sick — feed 
the hungry — clothe the naked — bind up the broken heart, and wipe 
away the tear of the drunkard's wife : and will not the laborer have 
his hire? 

N. CROSBY, agt. M. T. Union, 



CHAPTER IX. 

Money, how will you get it ? — Financial Plan — Duties of Agents — 
The way our Plan worked — Illustrative Reports — The Washing- 
tonian movement — The Temperance Union breaking down, why? 
An explanation — Local organizations essential — Washingtonian- 
ism, its errors — Washingtonianism, its power — Summing up. 

Ill a former chapter, I have referred to a plan of ope- 
rations which, when invited to accept an agency under 
the Massachusetts Temperance Union, I ventured to sug- 
gest to the Government of that organization. The his- 
tory of subsequent events in connection w^ith the cause 
cannot be clearly understood by the reader without a 
more accurate knowledge of the plan under which we 
were working. It was founded on the theory that all 
genuine reform had for its basis certain great truths not 
understood by the masses whose habits and customs the 
reformers sought to change. To instruct the people in 
relation to those truths was therefore the first work to 
be attended to. But how was this to be done ? The 
example of those who had become acquainted with those 
truths and were living in conformity therewith would be 
instructive to a certain extent. But the influence of in- 
dividual example is limited to a narrow circle, except in 
the case of persons of great distinction, and other agen- 
cies would, therefore, be needed. The living teacher 
must be sent abroad to proclaim reformatory truths to 
the people in popular assemblies, and the printing press 
(122) 



MONEY, HOW WILL YOU GET IT? 123 

must be employed extensively. Tracts, pamphlets, and 
newspapers must fly abroad as on the wings of the 
wind for the public enlightenment. These instrumen- 
talities would cost money — they could not be extensively 
employed by an organization which had no reliable 
(iuancial basis. To secure such a basis was therefore 
a matter of primary importance. All benevolent or 
reformatory organizations of which I had any knowledge, 
had been sustained by one of four methods : 

1st, By the Government of the country — the public 
treasury. 

2d, By occasional subscriptions or donations from in- 
terested parties. 

3d, By collections taken at the close of public servi- 
ces ; or, 

4th, By small sums, received at regular intervals, 
from all the friends and supporters of the enterprise, 
whatever that may be. 

The first named method was out of the question, for 
the Government patronised and licensed the evil we 
sought to destroy. To the second plan there were seri- 
ous objections, as it placed the burden of sustaining the 
new movement, beneficial to all, on the shoulders of the 
few. They would soon weary of this, and any system 
of operations based upon their support entirely, would be 
a failure. The third plan had been tested pretty thor- 
oughly and been found unreliable. The fourth seemed 
to me the only feasible and reliable one, yet it could not 
well be applied to the local organizations then existing, 
as the only condition of membersliip in those, was the 
pledge of abstinence from the manufacture, sale, and use 
of all intoxicants. To impose on their members new 



124 FINANCIAL PLAN. 

conditions, would very likely excite rebellion in our 
ranks, lessen our numbers, and perhaps demoralize the 
whole movement. 

But what was to be done ? A reliable financial basis 
must be secured or a speedy failure was inevitable. The 
plan I suggested, and which was finally adopted, was to 
secure an extensive^ paying mej7ibership to the parent 
society direct, rather than attempt to remodel the local 
societies, and add the payment of a certain sum at stated 
periods, to their other conditions of membership. The 
fee of membership of the state society was fixed at one 
dollar annually. There wer.e about four hundred towns 
and cities in the state, and an average of twenty-five 
members from each would give us ten thousand dollars. 
In addition to this, certain wealthy friends had given to 
the society annually sums varying from twenty-five to 
five hundred dollars each, and we judged that when they 
should see the list of state members carried up to five 
or ten thousand, and the operations of the society ex- 
tended and more aud more efiicient, they would most 
gladly continue their support, and perhaps increase it. 
We might therefore reasonably calculate on an annual 
income of from ten to fifteen thousand dollars, advanc- 
ing from that to twenty and still higher, as the friends 
and adherents of the reform multiplied, as they certainly 
would under such a system of operations. It was ar- 
ranged that each " dollar member" should receive, in 
part pay for his dollar, the "Temperance Journal," a 
monthly paper, the official organ of the Union, through 
which he would be kept thoroughly informed of the ope- 
rations of the Union, the labors of its agents, and the 
measure of success which might attend their labors. It 



THE WAY WK EMPLOYED TBE PRESS. 125 

was arranged that each agent of the society should make 
a report of his labors in the towns he visited, the number 
of lectures given, the additions secured to local societies, 
and the number of dollar members obtained in each 
town. All this, appearing in the " Journal," would give 
it a real practical interest to every friend of the cause, 
and through its columns every member of the Union 
could judge whether the dollar he contributed to its sup- 
port was judiciously expended. 

Besides the circulation of the "Journal" among the 
members of the Union, efforts were to be made, in each 
town, to have a copy supplied to every family in the 
town. For such general circulation, the paper was fur- 
nished for $12 per hundred. If there were three hun- 
dred families in one of the rural towns, thirty-six dollars 
only would be required to furnish every family with the 
paper. The funds for this purpose were obtained gene- 
rally by subscription, and oftentimes liberal-minded men 
who were not themselves tee-totalers, but were witnesses 
of the terrible results of intemperance, would give to 
that fund — judging correctly, that the placing of such a 
paper in the hands of every family in town, monthly, 
through the year, must soon work a desirable change in 
public sentiment. The distribution of the paper to every 
family was generally effected through the agency of the 
teachers of the district schools. With eight districts in 
a town, two hundred copies of the '' Journal" would give 
a package of twenty-five papers to each district. There 
was thus a division of labor among our devoted brethren, 
by which this plan was carried out, very perfectly in 
some towns, less perfectly in others, and in some dark 
corners and sections of the state no interest was felt in 



126 THE WAY WE EMPLOYED THE PRESS. 

the matter at all ; though the places of which this could 
truthfully be said were very few. 

As to the reception of this plan -of operation by the 
people, and its prospective influence if carried out, the 
reader can judge from facts. I have before stated that 
an important feature of the new "Plan" which had just 
been inaugurated, was a monthly report of labor from 
each lecturing agent, which, given to the temperance 
public through the press, would enable the friends of the 
cause to judge whether he was the " right man in the 
right place ;" in other words, whether his was a paying 
and a profitable agency. No provision had been made 
for sinecures. On the contrary, every salaried servant 
of the cause was to give his time and thought wholly to 
the work before him, of contributing by his lectures and 
through the press, to the creation of a sound public sen- 
timent in reference to the subject of his mission, and at 
the same time, to secure financial support to the parent 
society. My first monthly report, with a few facts added, 
will give the reader a pretty distinct idea of the working 
of the " plan," and enable him, too, to judge what would 
have resulted if we had been left without interruption 
to work steadily on under it for the thirty years which 
have passed since it was inaugurated. I can never cease 
to regret its abandonment, which was necessitated by 
the introduction of other machinery or modes of opera- 
tion. I religiously believe that carried out, in good faith, 
it would have crushed the system with which we are 
warring within half the time that has elapsed since its 
adoption. 

" Of all the sad words of tongue or per 
The saddest are these — it mi^ht have been." 



HOW THE PLAN WORKED. 127 

My first report of labor in Massachusetts was as fol- 
lows. 1 give it with but slight abbreviations because I 
wish the reader to have a very definite idea of our modes 
of operation in 1840, under the new plan. 

Gkafton, May 1st, 1840. 
Friend Crosby : In compliance with your i equcst, I will pro- 
ceed to give you a sketch of my adventures since I left the city of 
notions on the business of my agency. My first appointments were 
in the town of 

LEICESTER. 

My lectures were well attended. I laid before the people at the 
close of each lecture our plan of operations, and found the friends 
ready and anxious to cooperate in carrying it out. At the close of 
each lecture a goodly number gave their names as permanent mem- 
bers of the State Union on the conditions prescribed. The day 
following my first lecture, a Mr. Dewey, a staunch friend of the 
cause, volunteered to aid me in obtaining members. I obtained in 
Leicester sixty-three. The clergy of the town. Rev. Mr. Nelson and 
Kev. Samuel May, are tried friends of the cause, and exert a most 
salutary and extensive influence. There is one place in the village 
licensed to sell liquo^^s, but the authorities of the town liave so much 
regard to the welfare of their townsmen, that they have limited the 
operations of the establishment to the business of poisoning travel- 
lers — and have taken a bond from Mr. Bond that he will not under 
any circumstances sell to towns-people. This is tying the paws of 
the beast pretty effectually ; for it is the neighborhood custom which 
mainly supports these nurseries of crime. 

On Saturday I visited the town of 

SPENCER. 

Here an appointment had been made for an address to the child- 
ren at three o'clock, P. M., and also for a lecture to the adult popu- 
lation in the evening. The occurrence of a fire in the village 
prevented the mP^ting of the children. (I omit here the account 
of the fire and some curious incidents in connection with it.) I ob- 



128 THE WAY OUR PLAN WORKED. 

tained but few members in Spencer, for the lecture was not as well 
attended as it would have been had it not been for the fire, and the 
next day being the Sabbath, I had no opportunity of calling on the 
people at their homes. 

This is all I can report from Spencer at present. 

The town will do its part in the support of the good cause, finan- 
cially and otherwise, when it has a fair opportunity. 

On Sabbath evening I lectured in 

BROOKFIELD, SOUTH PARISH. 

The rain poured down in torrents, and but few, of course, came 
out. On Monday afternoon, I again addressed the people in the 
Rev. Mr. Nichols' Church, and obtained a number of members to 
the Union. On Monday evening I addressed a fine audience at 

BROOKFIELD, WEST PARISH. 

The following day, Tuesday, through the active co-operation of 
Mr. Joseph A. Sprague, and Mr. Harrison Barnes,- whose kindness 
I shall long remember, I obtained additional members to the Union^ 
swelling the list to thirty-six for Brookfield. These gentlemen 
assured me that the town should number its fifty members, and I 
doubt not they will secure that number, with the aid of Rev. Mr. 
Nichols, and Wm. Howe, of the South Parish, both of whom volun- 
teered to secure, as members, the names of some fi-iends whom I 
could not see. They have one tavern in the South Parish, where 
they carry on the business of drunkard-making pretty extensively. 
Do not misunderstand me. I do not say that they sell to drunkards 
at this place. Oh no ! they only sell to sober men until they become 
drunkards, which is infinitely worse. In the West Parish too, there 
is one establisment that Hath-a-way to change sober men into sots ; 
and still another near by, of the same sort. A man was found 
drowned in a mill pond near the village a short time since with a 
bottle of Rum in his pocket. He had long been noted for his intem- 
perate habits. I regret exceedingly that I am not able to give you 
the name of the heartless wretch who filled that bottle, for that I 
consider the most important fact to publish in connection with the 
affair. Could I have obtained the name, 1 would have written it 
out here in staring capitals, and requested your printer to have set 
it in large full faced type, so that it might have looked as black as 
possible. 



ILLUSTRATIVE REPORTS. 129 

NORTH BROOKFIELD. 

This town I visited on Tuesday evening, and enjoyed the pleasure 
of an introduction to that veteran in the cause of temperance, Rev. 
Thomas Suell, 1). D. I received Irom him and other friends, a cor- 
dial welcome, had a fine audience in the evening, and obtained on 
the spot at the close of the lecture, sixty me nhers to the State Union. 
The cause is safe in N. Brookfield. To Mr. Batchelder, I am under 
many obligations for his kindness and hospitality. 

I took the cars on the Western R. R., on Wednesday morning and 
came to Worcester, and dined with Porter at the "American Tem- 
perance House." If any man wants a good dinner in Worcester 
let him go to Porter's. If he would have splendid accommodations 
he should go to Porter's. If he wants to find a gentlemanly and 
obliging landlord, let him go to Porter's. 

The stage which leaves Worcester for Millbui»y at five o'clock P. 
M., f except when it gets started about six,) took me to 

MILLBURY. 

A rainy and dark evening prevented many from coming out to 
the meeting, and the audience was not therefore large. I received, 
however, at the close of the lecture the names of eighteen persons 
as members of the State Union, and with the co-operation of Dr. 
Amory Hunting, the following day, I swelled the number to Jifty, 
If I may not credit a portion of the Doctor's kindness to the circum- 
stance of my being a brother Pill-Box, there are few more earnest 
friends of the cause than the Doctor. 

A friend from ]\Iillbury visited Worcester a short time since, and 
as a man and wife w^ho formerly hailed from the Emeral-Isle, but 
recently from a Worcester grog-shop, were passing him, he heard 
the following language — which is full of meaning— addressed by the 
wife to her husband. " Sure, Pat, and they're all timperance folks 
jist about here, so keep that bottle out o' sight, darlin' dare." 

I am now at 

NKW ENGLAND VILLAGE IN GRAFTON. 

I have lectured here to an attentive and respectable audience, 
and obtained here last evening and to-day, over thirty members to 
the State Union. This evening I am to lecture at the centre of the 
town, and I have no doubt I shall swell the list of members to fifty 
for Grafton. « 



130 ILLU8TRAT1VE HEPOKTS. 

Thus far, Bear Sir, the plan works well ; and if I in concluding 
this long epistle, may be allowed a Yankee guess, it shall be this, 
That we will give the moral suasion party in Massachusetts, as much 
of that article as they can conveniently digest during the year 
eighteen hundred and forty. 

CHARLES JEWETT. 

My second report of labor in Mass., with its results 
closes with the following paragraph : " During the 
first month of my engagement, ending May 23d, I deliv- 
ered twenty-eight public lectures, and obtained 715 per- 
manent members to the State Union, and thirty-three 
donors,* who will together pay into the treasury the sum 
of $760. All, except forty-four, were obtained in sixteen 
of the fifty towns of Worcester county. That county 
alone will give over two thousand members to the State 
Union." The report of my labor lor June of the same 
year (a bad month for public labor, the evenings being 
short, and the people busy on their farms,) closes as fol- 
lows : '' I have delivered thirty public lectures, and added 
400 to your list of members during the past month. 

But little more than a year had elapsed since we 
began working under the new plan of operations, when 
the influence of the Baltimore, or '' Washingtonian" 
movement, began to divert attention from our efforts, to 
a novel and more exciting mode of operation. When 
the new movement reached Mass., our State Union 
sought to make of it an efficient auxiliary in the work 
before them. They secured, at considerable expense, 
reports of the speeches of the most prominent of their 

*Persons who were not prepared to adopt the pledge of the State 
Union, but would give their dollar and receive its publication, were 
enrolled on its records not as members, but donors. 



THE WASHINGTOiNlAN MOVEMENT. 131 

speakers, and published them in tract form for general 

distribution. Thousands and tens of thousands were 
scattered over the state, and everywhere much curiosity 
was excited to hear the reformed men. OUr local soci- 
eties, auxiliary to the State Union, anxious to meet the 
wishes of the people, would often secure a visit from 
some of their prominent speakers, and these everywliere 
insisted that the intemperate could not be got to join 
existing organizations, and that a new " Washingtonian" 
society must be formed in each town, and the more 
surely to interest the intemperate, some of that class, 
if they could be persuaded to sign the pledge, must be 
placed at tlie head of the new organization. 

Grave and thoughtful men hesitated. It seemed 
such a perilous proceeding to give up an organization 
which, in some localities, had existed for ten years, was 
officered perhaps by some of the most reliable men in 
town, and numbered its hundreds of pledged members, 
and go into a new society with a recently reformed man 
at the head of it, who might make a life-long and suc- 
cessful struggle against his old masters — depraved appe- 
tite, — habit, — and the dram-shop, and migJit possibly 
fall off in a month and bring reproach upon the organi- 
zation. But clamor, and a love of the new, and the 
sensational, carried the day, and thus, all over the state, 
the local societies were re-organized, and the State Tern- 
perance Union lost its auxiliaries. The agents of the 
"Union" counseled against this re-modeling of our 
organizations and the turning of all public efforts into 
that channel, but their counsels were in vain. Heartless 
men charged their honest efforts to mercenary motives 
— to a desire to maintain an order of things by which 
their salaries were secured — and so the work of disor- 



132 THE "union" breaking down, and why. 

ganization went on. In July, 1842, the Senior agent of 
the " Union" and the Editor of its pubHcations wrote 
thus in a leading article of the state paper : 

" Our plan was favorably received, and our agents 
were carrying it forward with all practicable despatch 
through the state. Under it the circulation of the Jour- 
nal had risen to nearly 25,000 copies monthly, the Al- 
manac and Tract to 70,000 more. More than 6,000 
members and donors have been obtained, the ' Cold 
Water Army' paper established, and the whole opera- 
tion of banners, badges, songs, &c., gotten up. The 
committee and friends who had watched with much in- 
terest and care the successful influence of the plan, were 
buoyant with hope that we were now to have a some- 
what more systematic and permanent effort in our great 
enterprise than had ever before been made in the state. It 
was anticipated that we should soon have 10,000 men 
and women in tlie state who would, by the payment of 
a single dollar annually, secure the regular advance- 
ment and ultimate triumphs of the cause. We cannot 
with integrity conceal the cause of our embarrassment. 
We should be false to the cause and to ourselves were 
we longer to remain silent upon a matter of such vital 
importance to both. Stating the cause of our empty 
treasury must not be taken or understood to be any evi- 
dence of complaint against the movement which has oc- 
casioned it. Our John Hawkins' tract* oi 80,000 — the 
uniform aid and sympathy of our agents, will establish 
our zeal in the Washingtonian efforts ; and yet our empty 
treasury is owing to the diversion of our funds from us 
to them. The answer to our calls for accustomed aid 

* A tract in which reports of his speeches were published. 



AN EXPLANATION. 133 

comes up from most of our towns, — ' we are doing so 
much for the Washingtoniaus, you must excuse us this 
year;' or, 'must delay,' or, 'be content with half as 
much as last year,' — till we are compelled^ <!cc., <fec." 

Another extract from the same report says : 

" In the midst of unprecedented and most heart-clieer- 
ing success in our efforts, we were suddenly cut off from 
the means of proceeding on our triumphant way. We 
were receiving assurances enough from all quarters that 
our labors and operations were neither misapprehended 
nor undervalued, and we were as often pressed to move 
onward with all our instrumentalities. At the same 
tim.e, our accustomed support was mddeiily and most 
unexpectedly withheld ; and of course, we became as sud- 
denly involved in obligations to agents, printers, paper 
manufacturers, rent, &c., &c." 

The magnitude of the calamity which overtook the 
temperance enterprise in the way I have described, can- 
not be properly estimated without considering carefully 
the work the Temperance Union was accomplishing. 
The extracts I have made from the reports of agents, 
and the general summary of its work embraced in the 
statements already given by the senior agent through 
the editorial columns of the Temperance Journal, will 
give the careful reader a tolerable idea of the influence 
it was exerting. The following sketch of its modes of 
procedure and the hold it had on the public coi.fidence, 
may not be amiss in this connection : 

" Four agents were handsomely supported in the field, 
visiting, instructing, and building up the local societies 
and scattering over all parts of the state the publications 
of the ' Union.' Their official organ, ' The Temperance 



134 WHAT THE MASS. TEMP. UNION ACCOMPLISHED. 

Journal,' had, at one time, a circulation of over twenty 
thousand copies monthly. Besides this, they published 
a paper especially for youth — a ' Temperance Almanac,' 
songs and hymns for the use of local societies — and not 
content with these means of influencing popular senti- 
ment, the glorious old ' Temperance Union' printed the 
saving truths it taught on banners and badges for festive 
occasions, on fans for the use of our temperance girls, 
and even on the handkerchiefs of the children. With 
steady step Massachusetts advanced, under that system 
of operations, straight toward the final overthrow of its 
worst enemy. A public sentiment was everywhere being 
formed adverse to the use, and sternly opposed to the 
traffic in, intoxicating liquors. County after county suc- 
cessively elected commissioners who refused to license 
the sale of liquors. Our temperance constituencies be- 
gan to be represented by temperance men in the state 
legislature. At one time we had even a majority of 
staunch temperance men in the National Congress. It 
came to be understood that, to find favor w4th the people 
of Massachusetts, it was needful that a man should favor 
the great social reform whose blessed influence was 
everywhere so manifest, not only officially hwt practically 
as a citizen. The agents of the state society were every- 
where welcomed by the clergy of the state, who, with 
rare exceptions, admitted them to their pulpits, often 
yielding to them the time usually devoted to ordinary 
pulpit instruction. The usual social religious meetings 
of the week would be. so arranged by the clergy of the 
town where an agent of the society was about to visit 
it, that the whole population could hear him if they 
chose without neglecting other important meetings. 



LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS ESSENTIAL. 135 

The pledge was presented at the close of our meetings, 
and numbers were usually added, at each meeting, to 
the pledged sworn foes of the liquor system." 

I have already recorded the fact that one of the prac- 
tical results of the Washingtonian movement was the 
cripplmg of the ''Massachusetts Temperance Union" 
by revolutionizing and ultimately destroying that multi- 
tude of local organizations which were its auxiliaries, 
the elements of its strength, the active agents through 
which its publications had reached the people, and by 
the aid of which measures planned by its executive 
officers and agents had been carried out and rendered 
effective to the extent we have seen. Let your thoughts, 
dear reader, dwell for a moment on that calamity. What 
can a state organization or a state central committee ac- 
complish without the aid of local organizations to receive 
their suggestions, make provision for the proper recep- 
tion of their agents and secure them a hearing in public 
assemblies, carry out their plans, circulate among the 
people the publications of the parent society, and aid in 
securing for it needful financial support. How will you 
Christianize a state without local churches, or educate 
its people without local schools ? Could a State Central 
Committee conduct to a successful issue a political cam- 
paign witliout local clubs or organizations to carry out 
their measures ? Shrewd politicians understand these 
matters, and hence we hear tlieir constant exhortations 
to their partisans in every political campaign, " Organ- 
ize I organize I ! everywhere," and, " Circulate the docu- 
ments." Take away regiments with their colonels, com- 
panies with their captains, and . sergeants with their 
squads, from a group of general officers, and their cour- 



136 WASHINGTO^IANISM, ITS ERROKS. 

age, tactics, and strategy will cover no field with dead 
or wounded enemies. Oh ! it was a stunning blow to 
the most effective temperance organization which ever 
existed in this country, when the friends of temperance 
in all the towns and villages of the old Bay State, 
through an honest but mistaken zeal in behalf of a 
popular but necessarily partial and ephemeral movement, 
consented to the abandonment of tried, reliable, and 
well officered organizations, and the substitution therefor 
of Washingtonian societies, officered, generally, by men 
but recently reformed. 

Nor was this the only mischievous influence of the 
new movement. Some of the most prominent of the 
new disciples, although they advocated total abstinence, 
held arid advocated zealously, doctrines utterly unsound 
in many important particulars. Mitchell, one of the 
original five, and the leading spirit of the group, held 
that, as Washingtonians, they should have nothing to 
say against the traffic or the men engaged in it. He 
would have no pledge even, against engaging in the 
manufacture or traffic in liquors ; nor did he counsel 
reformed men to avoid liquor sellers' society or place of 
business. He would even admit men to membership in 
his societies who were engaged in the traffic, and in my 
hearing he admitted that he had paid for liquor, at the 
bar, for others to drink after he signed the pledge. Re 
would not drink liquors, but if others chose to, that was 
their business. Of course, with these views he was de- 
cidedly opposed to all legal measures for the suppression 
or restriction of the trade. Our business was, so he 
argued, to get everyone to sign the pledge of abstinence, 
and then, of course, grog shops would do no harm, as 



WASHINGTONIANISM, ITS POWER. 137 

they would have no customers. To shallow reasoners, 
or men of little observation, this was very plausible, and 
great numbers accepted the doctrine as sound and 
adopted it as a plank in their temperance platform. A 
division was thus effected in our ranks, and papers 
were started to advocate the new temperance doctrine as 
distinct from those of the Temperance Union, and there 
were large numbers of men in various parts of the state 
who labored very industriously for a time to widen the 
breach between the Washingtonians and the old advo- 
cates of the cause. 

The embarrassments created by the new order of 
things, the false doctrines introduced with it, and the 
bitter controversies which grew out of tliem, imposed a 
heavier tax on my brain, nerves, and power of endur- 
ance than my public labors, which were unintermitted 
for years. Among the other false notions advocated by 
Mitchell was, that religious exercises of every kind were 
out of place in temperance meetings, even prayer. 

This notion, however, was so preposterous, that but 
few of his followers accepted it, and it was pretty soon 
abandoned. 

Looked at coolly, from this distance of time, that 
Washingtonian movement was a curious phenomena. 
It had elements of power in it, which will always be 
potent among men. The utter absence of all regard 
for station, social position, or distinctions created by 
wealth or superior education, was one striking feature of 
it. A man, with not a penny in his pocket, and who 
could neither read nor write, if he had once been a 
" hard case," and was now sober, and a member of the 
Washingtonian Temp. Society, was just as good a fel- 



138 SUMMING UP. 

low, and was just as much honored as a reformed 
judge, statesman, or major-general, and was heard in 
the meetings with just as much attention. 

Another important feature of it was, the retention by 
its individual members, of their individuality, if I may 
so speak. It was not a society, acting as such through 
its chosen officers, or certain committees, to whom cer- 
tain duties were assigned, but rather an aggregation of 
individual reformers, associated by mutual sympathies 
rather than definite forms, each a missionary of the 
common faith, and so far from losing a sense of their 
individual responsibility in the association, that in the 
early history of the movement, each member was 
expected to work just as though he stood alone and was 
singly and alone responsible for the enlargement of the 
temperance Zion. 

Suppose that element or order of proceeding, intro- 
duced in^o a church, — a benevolent organization, — a 
political party, or an army on the field of battle — and 
fancy the result. 

The utter disregard, by its members, of all conven- 
tional notions of propriety, as to the detail of one's per- 
sonal experience, was another element of its power, 
which can hardly be estimated. Some very fearful 
people are restrained from relating in public, very im- 
portant and interesting facts in their own history, lest 
some fastidious critic should whisper the word egotism. 
That folly was utterly cast aside in the Washingtonian 
movement, and if the freedom these reformers took, 
sometimes degenerated into license and ran on to ab- 
^•""A-dity, it was not a novelty in the history of reforms. 

While expressing my regret at the disorganization of 



FINANCE. 139 

our system of operations by I lie Wasliingtonian move- 
raent, let me not be understood as claiming perfection 
for the system we were pursuing. Though a great 
advance on anything that had preceded or followed it, 
it had some manifest defects. Its financial arrange- 
ments were not the best conceivable, though they were 
the best I judge which could have been adopted at the 
time, and under the circumstances. The true method, 
undoubtedly, is that adopted afterwards by the Order of 
the Sons of Temperance, and subsequently by the Good 
Templars and other close organizations. Small, but 
definite sums, received at regular intervals, from each 
member of the primary orgajiization, a certain portion 
of the aggregate -amount to be employed for the support 
of local operations, and another portion appropriated to 
the support of a State organization. That is the true 
plan. It meets every necessity of the case, and is per- 
fectly reliable. That excellent financial plan — with the 
blessed pledge of abstinence, — the fraternal kindness 
shown to the fallen, and to those striving for a better 
life, with the regularity of their meetings, constitute 
the real strength and efficiency of the Temperance 
Orders. The sentinel at the door, the trappings and 
the tinsel, the multiplicity of offices and forms, the 
engrossment thereby of too much precious time in their 
weekly and occasional meetings, and the tendency of 
the social features to engross too much attention, are 
their elements of weakness. 



CHAPTER X. 

The clergy and their general faithfulness— Mistakes and' their 
results — "Experiences," — their potency — More blunders — The 
clergy disaffected — Close organizations, their origin— Practical 
results — Different organizations compared — What is needed. 

I have already stated that the great mass of the 
clergy of Massachusetts, cooperated, heartily, with the 
Temperance Union and its agents. Nineteen-twentieths 
of them were total abstainers, and besides occasional 
sermons, very many of them gave the wicked liquor 
system a blow, whenever and wherever they had oppor- 
tunity. 

In those days an orthodox minister who wished to 
illustrate the doctrine of total depravity, found conven- 
ient illustrations in the existence of liquor-saloons, bar- 
rooms, and drink-shops generally, and in the fact that 
men would engage in distilling and importing liquors, 
and in burdening public and private conveyances with 
huge hogsheads of rum, and other liquors, of which 
ninety-nine gallons in every hundred would contril)ute 
to the production of guilt and misery, or aggravate 
evils already existing. The wickedness of licensing 
such a traffic came in for its full share of denunciation. 
In the prayers of the church, the temperance cause wa^ 
remembered, and earnest supplications were made in 
hundreds of worshiping congregations every Sabbath, 
for the special blessing of God on the enterprise. The 

(140) 



THE CLlLilGT — THLIR GExXERAL FAITHFULNESS. 141 

Unitarian clergy were very generally with us in the 
work, and the Universalists, believing tliat all men 
would be saved, labored in this cause as if they had 
fully determined they should be. Of course, there were 
hei'e and there exceptions to the general facts I have 
stated. A few in each of the sects were cowardly, and 
dared not condemn a system, so largely represented in 
their pews, and others hurled their denunciations against 
the grosser forms and phases of the wicked system, 
while the champaigne bottle and fashionable revelry, or 
Satan in silk, were handled very tenderly. 

As I have before stated, the clergy of the state were 
represented by hundreds in the annual meetings of the 
Union, or State Temperance Conventions, and at their 
homes, in tlieir own parishes, they were among the very 
foremost promoters of the cause. If, within tlie last 
twenty-five or thirty years, large numbers of the clergy 
ot Massachusetts, and New England generally, have not 
identified themselves fo closely with temperance organi- 
zations and temperance efforts as formerly, it becomes 
all real friends of the cause to inquire, if there has been 
anything in the management of the enterprise, by which 
we have, in a measure, lost their sympathy and coopera- 
tion. That there has been, I am certain, and I should 
be false to my convictions of duty to the cause, and be 
guilty of the cowardice and time-serving policy I con- 
demn in others, if I did not state the facts as I under- 
stand them. 

A history of the reform, as J have seen it, and so far 
as I have been identified with it, and as I shall write it, 
shall include every important influence known to me, 
which has, in my opinion, been operating either to hin- 



142 MISTAKES, AND THEIR RESULTS. 

der or advance it, however the statement may effect ttie 
opinions or prejudices of fellow-laborers, or of the public 
generally. In other words, according to my unoier- 
standing of the facts, I shall write history and not a 
work of fiction. A series of events or unfortunate cir- 
cumstances have, together, lost us, in part, the close 
cooperation of the clergy, as well as that of many lead- 
ing members of the Christian churches, though they 
still sympathize with the enterprise, and approve of, and 
generally practice total abstinence from intoxicating 
liquors. The first of the series was the objectionable 
doctrines and peculiar style of teaching or lecturing 
introduced in connection with the Washingtonian move- 
ment. The peculiarities of that style "gave it, as we 
have seen, wonderful popularity and considerable effi- 
ciency in certain directions for a time. I have already 
called attention to some of the elements of its power. 
There is still another worthy of remark. 

From the commencement of tliat special movement, 
no fact concerning it was more obvious, than that the 
simple relation by reformed men of their past bitter 
experiences, and of the substantial happiness of the 
new life they were living, in the practice of abstinence, 
had far more influence with the drunkard who listened 
to their relation, than the arguments of the most able 
men on our platforms. In view of that fact many 
argued the uselessness of all other measures. 

It is strange^ indeed, that men should so blunder as 
to conclude that the greatest work we have in hand in 
connection with our enterprise, is the reformation of the 
drunkard. That is an important end to attain, but it is* 
certainly of less consequence to save the thousands now 



"experiences" — THEIR POTENCY. 143 

intemperate, than by proper education and restraints to 
save from the pit-fall of drunkenness the millions now 
temperate, especially the rising race, for whom all good 
men and women naturally feel an instinctive and deep 
solicitude. 

The reason why the relation of experiences had more 
influence over the drunkard than argument, may be 
readily understood from a few moments reflection on the 
obvious facts of the case. Under the influence of in- 
toxicating poisons, the higher faculties, such as the 
moral sense and the reason, are the first to fail, while the 
imagination, the passions, appetites, and emotional na- 
ture, continue quite active, in fact they often exhibit a 
preternatural strength, even in cases of maudlin intoxi- 
cation. Hence argument, appealing as it does to reason, 
failed with the drunkard, for his reasoning powers were 
for the time being paralyzed, — while the simple relation 
of personal experience, by a once fallen but reformed 
man, being every way calculated to excite his sympathies, 
and kindle anew his failing hope of a better and happier 
life — found often a ready response, and hence that instru- 
mentality has been blessed to the salvation of thousands. 

Again, the recently reformed man told the story of 
the grog-shop, and the drinking saloon, as it had never 
been told before. They had seen the inside, and the 
working of these establishments, when there was no 
restraining influence operating upon their keepers, or 
the company ; at ten, eleven, or twelve o'clock at night, 
and often during, the wee small hours, when the sober 
and Christian portions of the community were in their 
beds. And what a revelation ! There are no such ter- 
rible exhibitions of depravity elsewhere seen on this 



144 MORE BLUNDERS. 

earth as are made in such places. Imaginations, de- 
praved and phrenzied by drink, conceive all abominable 
things. A perverted will, and a devilish ingenuity, set 
to work to realize those conceptions, while conscience is 
drugged, and all sense of obligation to God or man, 
witli all liumane feelings are annhilated. The history 
of what may take place under such circumstances, may 
well startle the community, as indeed, it did. These 
revelations constituted no inconsiderable part of the 
discourses of these new reformers. They contained 
other elements quite unobjectionable, and often exceed- 
ingly touching, and well calculated to make a most sal- 
utary impression on the minds of hearers. 

But there was much in the discourses of that class 
of men, or many of them, calculated to corrupt the 
public taste, and render excitable men, accustomed to 
listen to them, intolerant, afterwards, of more sober 
instruction. Some of the most influential of these 
reformed speakers, including Mitchel, one of the original 
five, seeing the extensive and growing influence of the 
new method of promoting temperance, came, honestly, 
no doubt, to regard all other efforts as useless, and did 
not hesitate so to express themselves. Temperance ser- 
mons, prayers, arguments, and exhortations, which were 
not experiences^ were of no account. The clergy and 
their influence were ignored. All that was wanted of 
the ministers was, to become members of the Washing- 
tonian Temperance Society, — officered, frequently, by 
recently reformed men — and to open their churches and 
vestries for a temperance meeting whenever an itinerant 
lecturer came along, of whom, perhaps the minister had 
never before heard. If he hesitated, or in any way 



THE CLERGY DISAFFECTED. 145 

thwarted the plans of the new apostle, he was sharply 
denounced. This was the first mistake or circumslance 
that lost us the co-operation of many of the clergy, and 
of many thousands of religious men, everywhere. As 
to whether the clergy were justified in withdrawing for 
a time from the field of active labor on account of the 
circumstances I have detailed, is a question about which 
men will differ. I think they erred; that the evils 
justly complained of, were aggravated thereby. Paul 
informs us that he had been " in peril among false 
brethren," but he did not abate his Christian activity on 
that account. Our clerical co-workers had less to com- 
plain of than Paul ; for their brethren who created the 
trouble, were, for the most part, not false, but simply 
rough, rude men, who had been trained for years in a 
very bad school, had recently discovered, and heartily 
embraced some truths, by which they had been greatly 
benefited, but still held many crude and unsound no- 
tions. We should not have looked to them for examples 
of courtesy, hardly of fair dealing. They had rough 
work to do, and many of them executed it very roughly. 
Our New England clergy had always been treated hith- 
erto with deference, even by irreligious and vicious men; 
and a little more friction, such as our western clergy 
get, would not have hurt them. Gradually applied, I 
am sure they would have borne it with Christian patience ; 
but the commencing of operations with a horse-card 
instead of a hair-cloth mitten, exceeded their power of 
endurance, and very many of them bolted. Not all, by 
any means. I could name scores of excellent men of 
the finest culture, and of high standing, who still con- 
tinued personally active in reformatory labors as distin- 
7 



146 CLOSE organizations/ their origin. 

guished from their ordinary parochial duties, who bore 
with all this rudeness for their great love of the cause ; 
and their clear perception of its fundamental character. 
They were to be sure often grossly imposed upon by 
unworthy men, who, taking advantage of the new order 
of things, assumed the role of public lecturers, often from 
love of notoriety, and the small gain of "g^ collection^'' 
while many of them did not in their lives illustrate even 
the single virtue they recommended in their coarse ha- 
rangues. 

Some of the early trophies of the Washingtonian 
reform, were reliable men, and their style of public 
labor, though novel, was unobjectionable. A few became 
Christian men and treated the church and the Christian 
ministry with respect, and were everywhere welcome, 
where known. These however, were a small minority 
of the whole. 

Another movement, which lost us the active co-opera- 
tion of thousands of excellent and able men, was the 
substitution of close for open organizations. Prior to 
the formation of the order of Sons of Temperance, all 
our public meetings were open to the world. There was 
no Ritual to control the order of public services which 
was determined by surrounding circumstances. The 
opening exercises, after the president of the society had 
called the meeting to order, were generally, prayer, the 
reading of the minutes, or the record of the last meeting 
and the reading of reports, if special duties had been 
assigned to committees. These services did not usually 
consume more than twenty minutes of the evening. 
The remainder was devoted to a free discussion of the 
subject of temperance by interested parties, unless pro- 



PRACTICAL RESULTS. 147 

vision had been made for a regular lecture, in which 
case, of course, that service had precedence. But 
whether the evening hours were occupied with the lec- 
ture or a general discussion, all was in the liearing of 
the masses. In many places it had been found difficult 
to maintain for any long period, a regular organization ; 
as they had no financial basis, and conseqaenlly could 
not maintain an aggressive war, than which, nothing is 
so well calculated to preserve the efficiency of organiza- 
tions, and the proper discipline of their members. The 
want of a financial basis and the Washingtonian tornado 
had sadly demoralized the movement ; and it was in 
that condition when the order of the Sons of Temper- 
ance was instituted. Some of the brethren who origin- 
ated that order had long been familiar with initiation 
fees, and ceremonies, rituals, regalia, en^blems of office, 
sentinels, conductors, <fec., and no doubt honestly believed 
that they were rendering the cause of temperance an 
essential service by incorporating these features into 
temperance organizations. 

What seemed to them wanting in our former organi- 
zations was a closer bond of brotherhood, financial sup- 
port, and forms more imposing, and these they thought 
would give strength and permanency to our societies. 
An organization with which they were familiar, having 
all the features before named, and doubtless others with 
which the public are not acquainted, had existed for 
ages, and why should not temperance organizations, if 
rightly constructed ? Thus they undoubtedly reasoned, 
and the result of their consultations, their organizing 
talent, and their devotion to the cause of temperance, is 
before the world, and has been, for years, in a powerful 



148 DIFFERENT ORGANIZATIONS COMPARED. 

organization, the influence of which has been blessed to 
the reformation of thousands once intemperate, and to 
the benefit of thousands of young men who have been 
saved from falling into habits of intemperance by its 
teachings, its pledge of abstinence, and the fraternal in- 
fluence of the association. I do not make that declara- 
tion unadvisedly. I know whereof I speak, for I have 
labored in and with the organization, and shall in the 
future, while it shall continue to be, what it now is, one 
of our principal instrumentalities for the advancement 
of the cause ; still I earnestly long and devoutly pray 
for the coming of that time when not only the leaders, 
but the masses who are now zealously laboring through 
the orders for the advancement of the temperance cause, 
shall clearly see what many have perceived for two de- 
cades, at least, that a triumph of the cause, as I have 
before stated, is simply impossible while our primary 
working organizations are, in so many of their features, 
objectionable to so large a portion of those whose coope- 
ration we wish to secure. 

In the New England states, where the question of the 
continuance or annihilation of the liquor traffic is most 
warmly contested, not half our strength is, at this 
moment, organized, and it never can be under existing 
forms. Let a friend of the cause, with intellect suffi- 
cient to draw sound conclusions from obvious facts, in 
any case, and anxious to arrive at the truth and the best 
way of doing a desirable thing, go to-day into almost 
any village or town of New England, and thoughtfully 
consider the facts which will there come under his no- 
tice. He will find the people divided in opinion and 
practice relative to the drink question and the liquor 



CLOSE ORGANIZATIONS. 149 

traffic. The Protestant churches of the town or village 
are, generally, in sentiment and practice, strongly op- 
posed to the liquor system ; not all their members, by 
any means, but an overwhelming majority. Will it do, 
now, to trust to these churches as our primary organiza- 
tions in the battle we have to fight with the rum power 
at the polls, finally, as well as elsewhere ? No. Em- 
phatically and forever m>, and for reasons obvious. Its 
members are not unanimous in their opposition to the 
liquor system, and an organization to answer our pur- 
pose must be. Again, the terms of admission to the 
churches^ any one of them^ will exclude large numbers of 
earnest friends of our cause, who, though not professing 
Christians, hate and purpose to war with the liquor sys- 
tem, not from the motives which mainly impel the ear- 
nest Christian, but because it is a deadly foe to the peace 
of their families and their business interests, to the se- 
curity of life and property, to the social and moral well- 
being of society, to education and civil government. For 
all these reasons, thousands, aye, thank God, millions of 
our countrymen and countrywomen hate the liquor sys- 
tem and will join us in our war upon it, who could not 
join the church. They do not consider themselves now 
proper subjects for church membership. The churches, 
then, will not answer our purposes as primary organiza- 
tions, for, I repeat, their terms of membership will 
exclude a multitude who must go with us, or we cannot 
secure controlling majorities. Still, the question re- 
turns, how shall we organize our strength in the town 

or village of ? Organized it must be, or we 

cannot employ it effectively, for unorganized opposition 
to the Devil and his plans and servants, never amounts 



150 CLOSE ORGANIZATIONS. 

to much. Suppose we establish there a Division of the 
Sons of Temperance, a Lodge of Good Templars, or a 
Temple of Honor. We know beforehand, all past expe- 
rience and observation tells u.s, that we cannot organize, 
under those forms, but a portion of our real strength in 
that locality. Yet, knowing this, many will insist upon 
a close organization, and will have nothing else ; and if 
a few urge that an open organization, such as we worked 
under prior to the year 1840, can be made to embrace all 
the real earnest friends of total abstinence in the town 
or village, certain parties, zealous friends of close organ- 
izations, declare that open organizations are "played 
out," that " they cannot be sustained," that " the young 
people will not take any interest in them,-" and that " it 
is the young, mainly, whom we wish especially to influ- 
ence," &c., &c. The older portion of the people, the 
clergy, the leading members of the churches, and other 
influential citizens, seeing and hearing all this, and fear- 
ing that if they press objections to close organizations, 
which they honestly entertain, it may dampen the ardor 
of the younger portion of the people, who, for obvious 
reasons, generally manifest a decided preference for them, 
will waive their objections and allow the proposed new 
organization to take that form. A few of those who, at 
an earlier period, worked in open societies, and would 
much prefer such an one now, will yield their preferences 
and go into the new close organization. I did so, and 
thousands of others have done so, not because we pre- 
fer them, or believe them best, but because the popular 
pressure was in that direction, and I, for one, did not 
wish to make, what to many might seem factious oppo- 
sition to the plans and purposes of my brethren. I have 



CLOSE ORGANIZATIONS. i-.l 

never, however, concealed mj opinion, that before a tri- 
umph of our cause can possibly be reached, v^e must 
have forms of organization more acceptable to the grey- 
haired and the venerable, to the clergy and leading Chris- 
tian men, who are active and influential in all other good 
enterprises that succeed ; to our judges, bankers, mer- 
chants, and prominent business men generall}^, of whom 
we now number comparatively few in our close organi- 
zations, but of whom we had a full proportion in open 
societies, prior to the year 1840. We want in our 
organizations, the old men and the strong men, the 
Presidents and Professors of our colleges, our Christian 
Editors and Teachers ; in short, all who love the cause 
of total abstinence and desire the downfall of the liquor 
system. We shall never get them while we have close 
organizations only, and they retain all their present 
features, because some of those features do not approve 
themselves to their judgment, nor accord with their 
tastes. I have said that it will not do to rely upon the 
churches as our primary organizations in the battle we 
have to fight with the rum power, because their terms 
of membership will necessarily exclude large numbers 
of the real earnest friends of temperance. Now the same 
objections, exactly, lie against close societies. They are, 
like the churches, agents or instruments of good to thou- 
sands, but their conditions of member ship luill keep out a 
large portion of our friends. " But what would you 
have us do ?" asks the Son of Temperance, or the Good 
Templar. '' Shall we abandon forms of organization to 
to vdiicli we are attached and wdiich we believe, and you 
admit are instruments of good to thousands, because 
there are others who are friendly to temperance, who do 



4k 



152 WHAT IS NJ-KDhiJ. 

not like our forms and will not join us ?" No, 1 would 
not counsel that. What is really wanted or needed, is, 
that you shall see the facts as they are, perceive the 
necessity that all our strength should be organized if 
we would secure a triumph of the cause, that we can 
never organize it all in close societies, and therefore, 
that you should cease to regard the formation of open so- 
cieties with disfavor or suspicion ; that you should look 
upon such societies, when formed, not as the rivals of 
yours, but as auxiliaries, needful helpers in a common 
cause ; that you should speak a kind word in favor of 
open societies, whenever you see there are elements of 
temperance strength which, after years of trial, you 
have failed to incorporate with close organizations. Do 
for temperance what thousands of good men do for the 
cause of Christ. Broad-breasted Christians often give 
their influence and money to build, for other religious 
sects, houses of worship in the very village where they 
reside, and perhaps on the same street where stands 
their own church. Do for temperance what I have done 
for years, and what thousands of total abstainers have 
done, especially in New England, where open societies 
were most numerous formerly, and were wonderfully 
effective. I have worked in good faith for years with 
and for Sons of Temperance and Good Templars, be- 
lieving, all the while, that open societies would serve 
our purpose better, and that their reestablishment, with 
the addition of a proper financial feature, would be 
found to be a necessity before a triumph can be reached. 
I saw, however, that close organizations must have a 
trial, and a thorough one, before the earnest and excel- 
lent brethren working in and through them, could be 



WilAT Id NEEDED. 



153 



made to see the necessity of other forms. They have 
been tried for nearly twice the period during which we 
worked in open organizations, and for one, I think it 
time to look at the facts as they are, and, instead of an 
obstinate adherence to existing and partial methods only, 
see if some measures cannot be devised for bringing our 
whole force into the field. 



CHAPTER Xr. 

Open Societies, tlieir advantages — Discussion before the masses 
wonderfully effective — Comparisons — Our Progress too slow — 
Why I thus speak— Our younger brethren — Progress before the 
year 1840 — Some change essential to a triumph — Three classes 
will not join the Orders — Why? — Regalia — They love the drink 
— Out of Date ? — No — How they work in California — A glorious 
success — A supposition — Policy our ground of choice. 

The advantages of the open society may be stated 
thus: their working involves less expense, so that with 
a similar system of quarterly or monthly fees, which 
may be readily incorporated into their constitution or 
working plans, they can expend more money in the edu- 
cational work of the enterprise. A large portion of the 
money raised in close organizations is expended, neces- 
sarily, for the rent and furnishing of halls or proper 
places of meeting. Open societies used the churches, 
vestries, chapels, town halls, and court houses, and gen- 
erally without charge except the expense of lighting and 
and warming in winter and the pay of the sexton. They 
could do it now in nine cases out of ten. Nothing is ex- 
pended in open societies for regalia, staves of office, and 
emblematic decorations. As the opening exercises, 
prayer, singing, and the reading of the minutes of the 
last meeting, and occasionally the report of a committee, 
did not usually occupy more than a third part of the even- 
ing, more time could be, and was devoted to a discussion 
of the general subject, or those local results of the liquor 

(154) 



DISCUSSIOJs BEFORE THE MASSES EFFECTIVE. 155 

system, often so terrible, and when properly discussed, 
so well calculated to awaken and keep alive in the com- 
munity a spirit of hostility to the whole liquor system. 
In open organizations, no time is consumed by ceremo- 
nies of initiation, the installation of officers, &c., hence 
more can be given to the reading of instructive docu- 
ments and the discussion of the subject before the 
masses. Still more important advantages .were found 
in the attendance of families as such, comprising, often, 
the grey haired father and mother with their beloved 
offspring, the stalwart young man, the beautiful daugh- 
ters, and even the dear little boys and girls, often very 
young. These all used to go to temperance meetings 
together. Fathers and mothers never listen to truths 
which concern the well being of their families under 
circumstances so well calculated to make those truths 
impressive and effectual, as when the dear ones are by 
their side and where they can watch the effect of the 
truths uttered on tlieir young minds, as their influence 
may be seen in the agitated countenance, in the eye 
sparkling with interest, kindling with indignation at the 
recital of terrible wrongs, or dim with tears when hu- 
man sorrows and sufferings are the subject of remark. 
Seven-eighths of our weekly temperance meetings now 
are held in private rooms. Few of the aged are there 
to give to the proceedings the dignity and gravity which 
their presence generally confers, and the children are 
left at home ; and worst of all, the drinking portion of 
the community, the very portion which we wish to in- 
fluence by our arguments and appeals, are excluded. 
They have not the pass-word. 

What a blow would be struck at Cliristianity, if, from 



156 COMPARISONS. 

the regular meetings of the sanctuary or the weekly 
meeting for religious conference, sinners were excluded, 
unless they came with the pass-word, or would declare 
beforehand their readiness to join the church. At the 
close of the exercises in open societies, you can take 
advantage of any good impressions made to get men to 
join the society, which they can do on the spot by sign- 
ing the pledge of abstinence, it being a part of the con- 
stitution, and from that moment the* pledged man is a 
member. In close organizations, considerable time must 
elapse and certain ceremonies intervene, before mem- 
bership is attained. 

Once more. Those petty rivalries which are now fre- 
quently occurring between, the different Orders, where 
they exist in the same community, and often between 
subordinate and neighboring organizations of the same 
Order ; and those unbrotherly strifes for offices and 
honors, which too often occur now, were unknown in the 
open organizations, absolutely unknown. . No doubt, my 
brethren who have embraced the cause within the last 
twenty-five years, and never worked in open societies 
at all, will be surprised at these utterances ; but men, 
past fifty, who worked in the open societies which existed 
in New England by thousands before the year 1840, 
will fully understand me ; such men as Senator Wilson 
of Massachusetts, Gov. Buckingham of Connecticut, 
Neal Dow of Maine, and Amos C. Barstow of Rhode Isl- 
and, and thousands of others past the age of fifty. Let 
our younger brethren, before they express their unbelief 
in the historical truth of my statements, ask such men, 
and I am willing that their statements shall stand, 
whether for my justification or condemnation. How far 



OUR PROGRESS TOO SLOW. 157 

they were effective, let the facts tell. In less than fif- 
teen years, the style of operations I have described, so 
far revolutionized the public opinion of Massachusetts 
that the license system was abolished in more than 
three-fourths of the counties of the State. The old style 
of operating gave place, in the years 1840, '41, and '42, 
to the Washiugtonian System, and that very soon to the 
Sons of Temperance and other forms of close organiza- 
tion, and they have had the field almost exclusively for 
over twenty-five years ; and what is the present status 
of temperance in tliat state as compared with what it 
was in 1843 ? It may be doubted whether we are 
stronger at the polls now than we were twenty-five years 
ago. If we have gained at all, it is but a slight gain to 
have been secured by twenty-five years of labor, even 
with whatever of hindrance may have fallen in our 
path. For myself, I believe as firmly as I believe any 
fact that I cannot absolutely demonstrate, that, had the 
work of reform been prosecuted for the last twenty-five 
years in New England in open organizations, with such 
added provisions as experience might have suggested, 
the liquor traffic would have been crushed before the 
public attention could have been diverted from that issue 
by the great struggle for the preservation of our Union. 
I am censuring no one for the course which matters 
have taken. I have assumed that the changes in our 
forms of organization were made in good faith, and from 
tlie best motives, and yet I have ever believed it a sad 
mistake, and see no reason now to change my opinion. 
For the prominent brethren of those Orders, whose 
friendship I have enjoyed, and with whom I have la- 
bored for many years, I have the most profound respect, 



lo5 WHY I THUS WRITE. 

and deeply regret that the perusal of what I feel it my 
duty to write in this connection, may give them pain. 
They may think me sadly mistaken, judge it unwise that 
I publicly express such opinions at the present juncture, 
and may feel called upon to controvert them ; but my 
motives they will never question. A nice regard for 
personal popularity with the thousands to-day most ac- 
tive in the temperance reform, and with the organiza- 
tions by whom I am most frequently employed, would 
have dictated a very different course from that I am 
pursuing, and my fellow-laborers know that full well. 

In those portions of our country, where existing close 
organizations did not supplant open ones, and where, 
not only oi.r younger brethren, but even those in ad- 
vanced life, now working through the orders, and zeal- 
ous for their multiplication and enlargement, have had 
no experience in the working of open societies, I am 
not surprised that they cling with tenacity to existing 
forms, and deprecate any important changes. Why 
should they not ? They enow that by present modes of 
procedure great good is accomplished, and have had no 
experience of methods more simple, and yet more 
effective. In many portions of our middle, western, 
and southern states, open societies never existed to any 
considerable extent, and where they did exist never 
embraced so large a proportion of the population, or 
enjoyed the measure of popularity, they did in Now 
England. Were our brethren throughout the country 
famihar with the working and history of open organiza- 
tions, as they existed there from 1830 to 1840, and had 
they witnessed the wonderful changes wrought through 
their instrumentality during those ten years only, they 



OUR YOUNGER BRETHREN. 159 

could never speak of them in such terms as I have lieard 
many employ. They would as soon lampoon their 
mothers. 

In many towns a clean majority, even of the legal 
voters, were pledged to abstinence before the year 1840, 
and that pledge was against all intoxicating liquors. 
Thousands of our temperance fellow-laborers, now under 
thirty, of both sexes, erroneously suppose that until the 
era of Washingtonianism all our societies were under 
the old pledge — simply to abstain from dUtilled liquors. 
They are greatly in error. Most of our New England 
societies had discovered the defects of the old pledge, 
and had substituted therefor the pledge of total absti- 
nence from all intoxicating liquors before the year 1838. 
As early, even, as 1833, the insufficiency of the old 
pledge had become apparent to many minds, and from 
time to time they communicated their thoughts to others. 
I am certain that at the first National Convention, held 
in Philadelphia May 24th and 25th, 1833, there were 
two men, perhaps more, on the business committee of 
that convention, who were then prepared to have taken 
the higher ground of total abstinence from all intoxicat- 
ing liquors — the celebrated surgeon of N. H., Dr. 
Amos Twichel, and Gerret Smith, Esq. The majority, 
however, were not prepared for so long a step at the 
time, and so these brethren with their clearer and more 
advanced views of the subject, comforted themselves 
with the belief that the lapse of a little time would 
convince all of the propriety of taking higher ground. 
They were not mistaken. 

At a meeting of the Middlesex County Temperance 



160 PROGRESS BEFORE THE YEAR 1840. 

Society, held at Charlestown, Mass., in the year 1836, 
the following resolutions were passed : 

Resolved, That, in order to ensure the steady progress and final 
triumph of the Temperance cause, it be recommended that the 
principle of abstinence from all intoxicating drinks, as an article of 
refreshment or luxury, be religiously observed by the friends of 
Temperance. 

Resolved, That we continue to regard the formation of Temper- 
ance Societies on the principle of entire abstinence from all intoxi- 
cating drinks, as the most efficient means of advancing the cause. 

At a meeting in Woburn, Mass., Oct. 8th, 1835, the 
Hon. Samuel Hoar in the chair, the following resolution 
was passed : 

Resolved, That it be recommended to all friends of Temperance 
to adopt the principle of total abstinence from the use of all intox- 
icating liquors, as a drink. 

In some towns the transition from the old to the new 
pledge was gradual, as in the instance following. 

The Springfield Temperance Society took action as 
follows in 1835 : ^ 

Voted, That this Society do now adopt the pledge of abstinence 
from all intoxicating liquors as a beverage, to be subscribed by such 
of the members of the Society as may prefer it to our present 
pledge. 

Voted, That hereafter, any person may become a member of this 
Society, by subscribing either of the above mentioned pledges. 

The Springfield Gazette, which gave an account of 
the meeting, adds, that " 130 individuals signed the new 
pledge at the close of the evening service." 

The New Hampshire State Temperance Society, at 



y 



PROGRESS BEFORE TUE YEAR 1840. 161 

their annual meeting for 1836, held in Concord, June 
1st, debated the question of adopting the total absti- 
nence pledge during an entire day, and until ten o'clock 
in the evening, when it adjourned until the following day. 
Before the close of the second day the entire member- 
ship of the body had become so tlioroughly convinced 
that higher ground must be taken, that the new or total 
abstinence pledge was adopted unanimously. 

Nor was this advance to a higher pledge confined to 
New England, by any means. 

More tlian one thousand societies existed in the State 
of New York, in 1837, with a membership of 80,000, 
pledged to total abstinence. 

As early as 1836, the Pennsylvania State Temperance 
society, at its session in Harrisburg, passed the following 
resolution. 

Ref)olved, Tliat it is the deliberate judgment of this Convention, 
that all the friends of temperance should wholly abstain from all 
intoxicating drinks as a beverage, and should cease to furnish them 
as such for their families or friends, and that the Convention do 
earnestly recommend that Societies be formed hereafter on the prin- 
ciple of total abstinence from all intoxicating liquors. 

In New Jersey, at a meeting of the Baptist Associa- 
tion, held at Burlington during the autumn of 1835, 
fifty of the fifty-one clergymen present, signed the total 
abstinence pledge. 

The Maine Temperance Union, with its pledge of 
total abstinence, was formed in 1837. 

The Massachusetts State Temperance Union, adopting 
tlie pledge of total abstinence, was formed in February, 
1838. 



162 PROGRESS BEFORE THE YEAR 1840. 

The Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Church, 
the New Jersey Conference of the Methodist Church, 
the General Association of Baptists of Indiana, and the 
Baptist Convention of Ohio all endorsed the doctrine of 
total abstinence before the year 1838, as did many other 
religious bodies in different parts of the country, and 
there were not, I think, twenty-five protestant clergymen 
in the entire state of Massachusetts, who had not 
adopted the principle and pledge of total abstinence 
before the year 1840. Nor was the warfare of those 
years upon the license system directed simply against 
the traffic in distilled liquors. 

At the March town meetings, for 1835, thirteen towns 
of Worcester county voted against licenses to sell dis- 
tilled liquors, and ten towns gave majorities against 
licenses to sell any variety of intoxicating liquors. In 
North Brookfield the vote stood 165 against license to 
40 for license. Holden gave against license, 115, for it 
45. West Boylston, Westboro', and some other towns 
condemned the wicked system of license by large ma- 
jorities. 

This wonderful revolution in the sentiments, habits, 
social customs, and governmental affairs of the people 
of New England was wrought within the period of four- 
teen years, reckoning from 1826, by the efforts of an 
awakened and earnest people acting entirely through 
open organizations. Had all our temperance societies 
during that period had sentinels at their doors to keep 
out those whom they desired to convert to the faith and 
practice of abstinence, could such a revolution have 
been wrought, within the period named ? . That question 



SOME CHANGE ESSENTIAL TO A TRIUMPH. 163 

I respectfully put to all concerned for the advancement 
and final triumph of the temperance cause. 

I have repeatedly expressed the opinion that a triumph 
of the enterprise is impossible until we shall be able to 
organize and effectively employ all our strength, all those 
who have been converted to the doctrine and practice 
of abstinence by some of the instrumentalities hereto- 
fore employed. Three classes are lost to us now, and 
will be hereafter, while our active organizations preserve 
all their present forms and features. The first class 
comprises a very large number of our strongest and best 
citizens, who are honestly opposed to all close, or secret 
organizations. I have heard the opinion expressed 
scores, perhaps hundreds of times, that such opposition 
to close organizations is a mere pretense, or excuse for 
non-action and neglect of duty. It is impossible. The 
general character of the class of persons of whom we 
are speaking, forbids us to entertain, for one moment, 
such an opinion. Let those who hold it observe criti- 
cally the parties, who, though practicing abstinence and 
heartily hating the whole liquor system, still stand quite 
aloof from the Orders, in spite of urgent invitations, re- 
peated for years, to join them, and who have, in many 
cases, resisted a good deal of pressure in that direction. 
Take either of the New England States, where close or- 
ganizations have been almost the only ones existing for 
the last twenty years, and not one half the members of 
the Congregational and Baptist churches who are practi 
cal abstainers have been with us as members. What is 
there in the lives or characters of these men and women 
that should lead us to question their honesty and veracity 
when they tell us that they cannot join us, as at present 



164 

organized, without violating their consciences ? Nine- 
tenths of the clergy of both those denominations were 
members of the temperance societies in 1840, and were 
among our most efficient laborers in the cause. 

Another large and influential class stand aloof from 
the orders because the wearing of regalia and emblem- 
atic decorations is offensive to their tastes. Members of 
the orders by thousands, who now wear regalia, sacrifice 
their tastes to their great love of the cause, and restrain 
all expression of their feelings in relation to the matter, 
lest they should be misunderstood, and wound the feel- 
ings of their brethren. But when the proposition is 
made in the Lodge or Division room to appear, on some 
public occasion, in regalia, how often we find objections 
urged against the measure, and that too, by some of our 
most active and worthy members. If they are out-voted, 
they submit and wear the regalia, and if need be walk 
in procession to the church to occupy the center of the 
house, or some conspicuous place during the services of 
the day or evening. To many such no sacrifice required 
of them and no labor they are called upon to per- 
form in connection with the cause, bears so heavily upon 
them as those external adornments which do not to- 
gether weigh four ounces. Many differently constituted 
may wonder and smile at all this, but these are stern 
truths, nevertheless. I happen to be one of the unfor- 
tunate ones, if the brethren so regard it, who have no 
taste for such adornments. I would rather the brethren 
would double or quadruple my regular fee or impose 
upon me any service which the constitution or rules of 
the order allow, than to hang on my neck, for a single 
evening, the very brilliant decorations which I have 



REGALIA. 165 

seen many excellent men wear with apparent pleasure, 
and which probably cost them not less than twenty-five 
dollars. Say, if you please, that it is a mere matter of 
taste. Granted, But why should we trammel our or- 
ganizations with needless trappings, to wear which many 
of our educated and strongest men must, if they join us, 
crucify their natural or acquired tastes. If a ready 
mark of recognition is wanted, would not a modest piece 
of colored ribbon tied in the button-hole of a gentle- 
man's coat, or a small rosette pinned on a lady's dress, 
answer the purpose as well ? So small a change as that 
would, I honestly believe, have added during the last 
twenty years thousands and tens of thousands both to 
the Sons of Temperance and Good Templars ; and if in- 
crease of numbers and influence is wanted, why should 
so much be sacrificed to a childish love of display. A 
glance over the world will show that it is not the edu- 
cated and cultivated classes or nations who delight in 
trappings, gew-gaws, and glittering externals. Least of 
all does it become workers in a genuine reform to spend 
money and time in needless decorations. We are striv- 
ing to impress the Christian world with the truth that 
true temperance is the handmaid of religion, and in that 
effort we shall succeed best, with the least possible dis- 
play of tinsel and trappings. 

A third class, which is by no means a small one, find 
in the peculiarities of our present organizations a con- 
venient excuse for standing aloof and doing nothing to 
advance the cause, who would feel compelled to join and 
labor in an open society if one existed in their neighbor- 
hood, because, should they fail to do so, it would be at 
once suspected that they had private and very particular 



m^ 



166 THEY LOYE THE DRINK- 



reasons for objecting to a pledge of abstinence. That 
is the real fact in their case. They have a secret love 
for the drink which they do not care to acknowledge, 
and which our present arrangements enable them to 
conceal while claiming to belong to one of the classes be- 
fore described. Great numbers of such individuals joined 
open organizations prior to the year 1840. They were 
compelled to do so and to practice abstinence by the 
circumstances surrounding them. A great evil was 
abroad in the land, invading the homes of the people 
and warring on all public interests. But one mode of 
arresting it had ever been discovered — the organization 
of those opposed thereto, under a pledge of abstinence. 
No excuse was possible for not joining in 'a popular cru- 
sade against the common enemy, growing out of any 
peculiar or objectional features of our organizations, for 
they possesse'd none. They could not plead that associ- 
ations of the people to accomplish desirable results were 
unnecessary, for most of them belonged to one or more 
societies — religious, political, or industrial. They wished 
to be reckoned among the friends and supporters of all 
good institutions and enterprises, and there was no way 
to manifest their concern for the removal of this great 
scourge, but to take their stand with the associated 
friends of temperance. JVoiv such men find it quite easy 
to excuse themselves from any participation in the work 
of reform, on account of the peculiar features of our 
organizations. I want all reasonable ground of excuse 
removed, so that no respectable citizen shall be able to 
occupy a doubtful position. 

But some reader may, perhaps, suggest that open or- 
ganizations would not now serve our purpose as they did 



HOW THEY WORK IN CALIFORNIA. 167 

formerly ; that they were adapted to a certain stage of 
the enterprize which we have long since passed. We 
have, however, satisfactory evidence that they can be 
rcii lered as efficient now as at any former period. In 
pr )of of that statement, take the following history of a 
late movement in California. It appeared in a religious 
paper published in Chicago, 111., — the "Advance" — for 
October 5th, of the present year, 1871. 

HOW THEY CLOSED THE GROG SHOPS IN A CALIFORNIA TOWN. 

Tliere are different theories of temperance reform, but any of them 
are good enough that succeed when put in practice. Some object to 
" total abstinence" and temperance pledges, but they work well 
sometimes. As witness this record from California : 

Santa Cruz, being one of the younger towns of the State, has but 
just now emerged from its era of grog shops, whisky saloons, and 
rum holes. Every new American toAvn seems to be, somehow, con- 
demned to start in this way. Some are burned to death, and ruined 
in the process. And some throw off these evils, and come out into 
a virtuous and prosperous life. 

Santa Cruz has taken the latter course. Last New Year's, ten 
men, habitual drinkers, soni" of them just going into the embrace 
of delirium tremens, visited with a remarkable spasm of good sense, 
determined to reform ! To reform, they knew very well, was to stop 
drinking. Tliey could not " taper off." Some of them had tried 
that too many times to have any faith in it. They were in earnest, 
and determined to take a course that was sure to succeed. That 
course was the plain>ist thinji; in the world. It was to stop drinking 
intoxicating drinks. They did stop. They pledged themselves, then 
and there, to one another, not to drink a drop of anything of the kind. 
They were not religious men. But some of them were educated 
men. Some had not yet wasted all their substance, a few had hand- 
some estates left, and all were in the prime of life. 

Like other Americans, when they undertake to do anytliing to- 
gether, they organized, — tliey formed a society, — a total abstinence 
society. They opened it to all who would Join them in their pledge j 



168 A GLORIOUS SUCCESS. 

men or women. Their wives joined, gladly enough. Many of their 
companions in drinking habits joined them. Many people of life- 
long habits of total abstinence joined them too. 

The saloon keepers said, " Oh ! yes, we've seen this tried before. 
It will last a few weeks, as long as the novelty is on." And so, 
with wise looks, they quietly waited for the reaction to come, and 
the brisk business that would return to them with it. Meanwhile, 
the new society grew. Members were proposed, and admitted every 
Monday evening, — they met weekly. 

From the original ten they came to be fifty, seventy-five, a hund- 
red, a hundred and fifty. And now their membership is two hundred. 
The reform came to he the toivn talk. Nothing could be said against 
it. Even the liquor-sellers, whose stocks were on hand, whose rents 
were runningi; on, and whose bills to the wholesalers were comino- 
due, could not say a word, for hadn't men a right to stop drinking, 
as well as to drink, if they wanted to ? 

The churches quickly and heartily seconded the movement. In fact, its 
commencement is probably owing to the private persuasion of one 
member of the Methodist church with one or two of the original ten, 
to stop drinking. The ministers preacJied, and many of the Christian 
people joined the society. There was joy in many houses, where 
there had been despair before. Not less than forty or fifty families 
are now temperance homes, with all the consequent thrift, comfort, 
and hope, which a year ago were threatened with the ruin so sure to 
come upon the drunkard. 

The dram-sellers waited in vain. A majority of them got tired 
of waiting. They closed their doors, and went about other business. 
Instead of a reaction, came a grand celebration 1 The whole popu- 
lation, almost, turned out and held a celebration in a grove. It 
brought tears to many eyes to see the long procession that day, with 
its banners and its bands of music, — a spirited and noble celebration, 
in the interest of social order, domestic peace, and true religion. 
The people who originated this movement v)ere not church-goers, nor 
were their families. Nor are they now. But many of them begin to 
fall in. Well known Christian families joined them in their reform 
society, and they are gradually becoming attendants at church. 
Three-quarters of a year have now passed away, and there has been 
no reaction. Very few have withdrawn from the society, and verv 



A GLORIOUS SUCCESS. 169 

few indeed have violated tlieir pledge and been dropped. The great 
object is to get in eiery drinking person, and save him hy total absti- 
nence, before it is too late. They have succeeded in many cases, 
where success was a great victory. 

This reform has put a different face on this community, you may 
be sure. We have just had our State election and every lady was 
surprised at its unusual orderliness in Santa Cruz. It was the 
theme of remark all day, and the papers of the next day commented 
upon it. Total abstinence made it so, nothing else. 

I have observed this reform carefully all the year, and I believe 
it genuine, and likely to be permanent. It is a great pleasure to 
report it. It has not been my privilege to know of many of the 
kind in California, hitherto. I hope there will be more, hereafter, 
notwithstanding our wine-gi'owing and brandy-making, — things 
greatly against it, to be sure. It this example of local, spontaneous 
reform suggests the trial of the same to other places needing the 
like, within the reach of your circulation, they may be assured, from 
our experience here, that the results will be eminently satisfactory. 
. «It has already been imitated in our county. Similar societies have 
been formed in Soquel, and Watsonville, and elsewhere, embracing 
at this time a membership of about five hundred, including the soci- 
ety in this town. 

S. H. W. 

Could anything be more simple and satisfactory than 
the operation therein described ? I would have the 
reader notice the period of time during which this desir- 
able work was done. Ten months at the outside. Please 
notice also, that all who would sign the pledge of absti- 
nence were admitted to membership — both sexes — all 
ages. There was no committee to consider and report 
on applications for membership, or balloting for or 
against their admission. No long ceremony of initia- 
tion, occupying precious time greatly needed for inter- 
esting and instructive discussion. 

We would have our Christian readers also observe 



170 A SUPPOSITION. 

especially the conduct of the clergy, and church mem- 
bers of Santa Cruz, in relation to the movement described. 
" Well known Christian families joined them in their 
reform society, and they are gradually becoming attend- 
ants at church." The italics are mine. 

Suppose now some well meaning, but ill informed 
minister or layman had, at the very inception of this 
reformatory effort, suggested to the parties concerned 
therein, that intemperance was but " one shoot of the 
old root of sin," and that the true way to assail it was 
through the church, especially appointed for warring 
upon all forms of sin, and further, that no movement 
which does not aim directly at the thorough conversion 
of men, can be effective, or will reward the labor, <fec., <fec. 
Suppose, I say, that such nonsense had been industriously 
preached to the people of Santa Cruz during the month 
in which this society originated, and they had listened 
to and believed it, what would have happened ? Satan 
and the liquor-sellers might have rejoiced over a grand 
work arrested in its forming stage, and the drunkards 
would most likely have remained drunkards still. 

In the management of a farm rendered well nigh val- 
ueless through neglect or bad culture, the skillful and 
experienced farmer will not despair of success because 
he may not be able to effect the renovation of all its 
acres at once. 

Oh, when will good men estimate the soundness and 
value of their theories and favorite methods of proced- 
ure, by honest comparisons of practical results ! 

Reader, if you would desire to be eminently useful to 
your generation and country in connection with the 
temperance reform, let me urge you to read over and 



POLICY OUR GROUND OF CHOICE. 171 

over again that simple story of the reform in Santa Cruz, 
but especially ponder, and inwardly digest the sentences 
I have italicised. There are, in that brief history, texts 
for a dozen sermons or temperance lectures ; and suitable 
matters for at least half a dozen lengthy and instructive 
essays. 

The reader will perceive that I have discussed this 
question as to the choice of forms of organizations as 
one of policy simply. Had I believed there was any- 
thing morally wrong in the formation and support of 
close organizations, I certainly should not have joined 
and worked with them. My opinion of their moral 
character I have further indicated, by commending them 
oftentimes to congregations of the people at the conclu- 
sion of my public discourses, and urging them to connect 
themselves therewith. I have done so, not because I 
believed them the best calculated to serve our purposes, 
but because they were eminently useful, and the best 
existing at the time in those localities, and I did not 
feel myself at liberty to throw cold water on the efforts 
of earnest brethren by questioning, before a mixed 
audience, the wisdom of their choice as to the forms 
through which they would labor. 



CHAPTER XII. 

OPERATIONS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS TEMPERANCE UNION. 

Sad results of wrong measures — Our temperance poets — Fourteen 
o'clock — A Cotton Speculation — Jimmy's Mill — The Distiller's 
Disaster — A grist from Jimmy's Mill. 

It may be well to add a few words to what I have 
already written relative to the Washingtonian move- 
me4it, and the action of our State Union in reference 
thereto, lest it may be supposed that its officers were in- 
different to so striking a phenomenon. When it began 
to be influential, in cities south of us, our Executive 
Board and the agents of the Union sought to avail 
themselves of it, as an auxiliary to the system of oper- 
ations they were so successfully conducting at the time, 
and my senior in the agency, Nathan Crosby, Esq., who 
was at the time editing the publications of the Union, 
managed the matter with that excellent judgment and 
tact which characterized all his movements. Some of 
the most distinguished of the new apostles were invited 
to the state, and opportunities were afforded them to 
address the people. Their speeches were reported for 
our papers, and John Hawkins, one of the most earnest 
and acceptable speakers among the reformed men, was 
for a time employed to visit certain parts of the state, 
and operate more especially with the drinking men, and 
those recently reformed. His influence was most salu- 

C172) 



MOVEMENTS IN 1841. 173 

taiT, ^iiid his discourses generally acceptable. While 
thus our committee endeavored to utilize the "Washing- 
ton i m excitement, it made a very important movement 
in another direction. 

A Mr. Stewart, an honest, earnest Irishman, heartily 
devoted to the cause, and a man of more than average 
ability, was employed to travel along the lines of rail- 
road, then in process of construction, where large num- 
bers of his countrymen were employed, to labor with 
them, both personally and publicly, where meetings 
could be held, and to form total abstinence societies 
among them, wdiere practicable. He labored faithfully 
and judiciously, but the results did not seem to warrant 
the continuance of that instrumentality, and it was soon 
abandoned. 

Although the Temperance Union labored to use the 
Washingtonian excitement, and the new elements of 
power it created, in a way consistent with the preserva- 
tion and continuance of the regular system of opera- 
tions they were conducting, they found it a very difficult 
matter. Some who had not been in love with the Union 
for various reasons, sought to create of the new element 
a rival to it, and a State Washingtonian Society was 
formed. Journals, in the interest of the new movement, 
sprung up in every considerable city in the state. These 
made strong appeals for local patronage, and thousands 
of our old and substantial fellow-laborers, all over the 
state, transferred their patronage from the publications 
of the Union to these ephemeral sheets. It soon became 
evident that the general movement had been so demor- 
alized by the advent of this Washingtonian phase, and 
the use made of it by certain parties within the state, 



174 SAD RESULTS OF WRONG MEASURES. 

that it would be impossible for the Union, with its lim- 
ited financial support, to sustain so extensive a system 
of operations as they had heretofore done, and greatly 
to my regret, my senior in the agency decided to resign 
his position. My earnest protest was unavailing, and 
in his retirement, the state lost one of the most able and 
judicious advocates of the cause I have ever known. 
He was not an eloquent orator, but an able and earnest 
man, who studied the subject thoroughly, discussed it 
kindly and logically, and the dignity of the enterprise 
was never lost sight of in his public efforts. In addi- 
tion to my labors as the lecturing agent of the Temper- 
ance Union, I had now to edit their publications. 

In my efforts to increase, if possibl-e, the circulation 
of the Temperance Journal, a monthly paper, the 
official organ of the society, I promised its subscribers 
and the reading public, that each number through the 
year 1846, should contain an illustrated original poem, 
which should have reference to some phase of the tem- 
perance question, or to some feature of the wicked sys- 
tem with which we were at war. With the assistance 
of some excellent fellow-laborers, I redeemed my pledge, 
and this extra effort to give added interest to the paper, 
was rewarded by an increase of its circulation. Those 
twelve poems were, at the close of the year, published 
in a pamphlet, illustrated by the very expressive wood 
cuts which had served to give them added interest as 
they appeared in the Temperance Journal. Four of the 
twelve were from my own pen, and the other eight, far 
better, contributed by the pens of fellow-laborers. My 
readers who have kept themselves well posted in relation 
to our American literature for the last thirty years, will 



OUR TEMPERANCE POETS. 175 

not be surprised that I speak of the other eight short 
poems referred to, as better than my own, or some of 
them at least, \a hen I record that two of the number 
were furnished by the two brothers, William H. and 
George S. Burleigh, whose splendid intellects have been 
at the service of the temperance reform from their very 
boyhood. For one, I heartily thank God that some of 
the most distinguished poets of our age and country have 
never prostituted their powers by singing the praises of 
the filthy and obscene god, Bacchus. Every stanza and 
line of Pierpont, Whittier, and the Burleighs, have been 
consecrated to the dethronement and destruction of 
vice, the crowning and exaltation of freedom and virtue, 
and the purification, elevation, and advancement of our 
race, in all that renders men truly wise, good, great and 
happy. As a specimen of my lighter style of composi- 
tion, by which I sought to give interest to our temper- 
ance publications, at that period of the reform of which 
I am now Avriting, I insert here two of the articles 
referred to. It should be remembered by the reader 
that these were written hastily, in the intervals of 
severer labor, and for the specific purpose before stated. 
No one can be more thoroughly aware of their defects 
than I am, but they certainly contributed to give added 
interest to reformatory publications, and thus to advance 
a great and good work, and that is more than can be 
said of very many of the more pretentious efforts of 
those who jingle words and syllables in rhyme. 



176 



FOURTEEN CLOCK. 




FOURTEEN O'CLOCK. 

Night o'er the eartli her raven wing had spread, 
Hens had retired, and men had gone to bed, 
When two spruce dandies took it in their head 
To visit Sandy's shop, 
And take a social drop 
Of whiskey-punch, spiced sHng, or " Tom and Jerry ; " 
And while with curious skill 

He mixed th' inspiring draught, 
They stories told, and laughed : 
Then did their glasses fill. 
And while they quaffed,. 
Cracked their coarse jokes, and made themselves quite 
merry. 



Now, gentle reader, with your kind permission 
We'll leave them there, and make a slight digression. 



FOURTEEN o' CLOCK. 177 

A little spark alights upon the ground, 

And seizing on the dry leaves scattered round, 

Kindles at length a very pretty fire, 
Which, having no respect for man's fine labors, 
Burns up your house, then seizes on your neighbors, 

While to the very heavens the flames aspire. 
Burning roofs fall, 
For aid men call ; 
The fire, with blazing fury, still drives on, 
Until (its work of devastation done) 

It leaves a heap of smouldering ashes there, 

Which Sorrow may extinguish with a tear. 

Thus causes small, through folly or neglect, 
Produce oft-times a terrible effect. 

Draining from mortal eyes oceans of tears. 
Oft the deceitful, treacherous, sparkling glass 
Has sunk the man of wisdom to an ass. 

Or something like one, all except the ears. 

The rum goes in, and common sense goes out ; 

Genius and learning both are put to rout. 

And empty as his pockets leave his head ; 

Kindly affections hasten to depart, 
(Each grace and virtue dead,) 

And hissing vipers nestle in his heart. 

With lustrous eyes, intelligent and keen, 
As slaughtered pigs, in Boston market seen ; 
With fiendlike scowl or idiotic laugh. 
And tongue, for mouth like his, too big by half, 
He bawls as constant as a weaning calf; 

A silly subject for contempt or pity. 

Yet in his own opinion wondrous witty. 

The fiend, who sneaks about, to get his claw 
On thoughtless souls, wherewith to fill his maw, 

AVhene'er he sees men in this wretched state. 
Laughs as though he would split his sooty hide, 



178 FOURTEEN O'CLOCK. 

And all his black apprentices beside 

Shake their long tails, with fiendish joy elate. 

Such man becomes, and such these tipplers were, 
By frequent sips of Sandy's liquors rare. 

Night's half-way house old father Time had passed, 

And left two milestones in his track behind, 
And onward toward the third was journeying fast, 

When to their homes our heroes seemed inclined. 
Sandy politely guides them to the door, 

And kindly held the light ; 

For 'twas a very dark and dreary night, 
And now the rain did like a torrent pour. 
Drunkards need space to travel in, and they 
Their zigzag journey took toward Bi'oadwsij ; 
They reached it, and pursued their course along, 
Cheering old night with fragments of old song. 

We said the rain fell fast, and so it did. 

And down the gutter like a river flowed ; 
And as with gathering strength along it sped, 

Bore on its breast a very filthy load ; 
But whence derived, we shall not here declare, 

Lest we might give offence to ears polite ; 

Yet to prevent mistake, and set all right, 
We'll hint that hogs and horses travel there. 

Into this Mississippi of Broadway, 

While city lamps did shed a fitful gleam, 
Our drunken friends by some mischance did stray ; 
And as they reached the middle of the stream, 
A church clock struck to tell how time sped on ; 
And to be sure and keep their reckoning good, 
They halted in the middle of the flood, 

And stamping with their feet, they counted one. 
Again it struck ; they stamped, and tallied twOy 
While high above their heads the water flew. 



A COTTON SPECULATION. 1T9 

TJiree, said tlie clock, and as their feet replied, 
The filthy water splashed from side to side. 

Another clock, behind the first in time, 
From old St. Paul's, just now began to chime; 
And while its tones reechoed through the town, 
Amid the flowing filth their feet came down. 
Six.^ they exclaimed ; when from a neighboring spire 
Another bell rang out the alarm of fire. 
This gave the drunken dandies quite a sweat ; 
For though from head to heels they now were wet 
. With mingled gutter-wash, a falling shower, 
Which on their crazy heads did constant pour, 
Yet there they stood, and stamped, and counted still, 
And on their ears each stroke successive fell. 

They reached, at length, /owrteen; and quite amazed. 
One thus exclaimed, while wildly round he gazed, 
Through all nuj — (hie) — life, some twenty years or more^ 
I*never knew it — (hie) — quite so late before " 



A COTTON SPECULATION. 

In Bristol County, in a certain town, 

Not fifty miles from one they call Fall River, 

A trader lived, a man of some renown ; 

And though he peddled grog they called him clever. 

He chanced to have a very worthy wife. 

Possessed of real nobleness of mind, 
Benevolent and kind ; 

And swayed by her he lived a decent life. 

Upright in some respects, yet still for gold, 

The devil's own elixir. Rum, he sold ; 

And while promoting thus the public good, 

Took in exchange the cash, or — what he could. 



180 



A. COTTON SPECULATION. 



His house stood distant from his store 
Some twenty rods or more ; 
And toward the close of a fair summer's day 
A wretched beggar thither bent his way. 




His eye was sunken and his look was sad ; 

His beard, unshaven, o er his bosom hung ; 
While tattered rags, with which the wretch was clad, 

Stirred by the evening breeze, around him swung. 
An old crushed hat protected his grey head, 

While his thin locks were streaming in the wind. 
Ho moved along with tottering, feeble tread, 
Bending beneath a pack 
'\\^iich rested on his back, 
While his lean dog -was trotting close behind. 

He mounts the steps and gently rings the bell ; 

The wife invites him in and sets a chair. 
And while the wretch his tale of woe doth tell, 

There glistens in her eye a sympathetic tear. 
She offers food, but that he does not want — 

And seeing what a scare-crow dress he's got on, 



A COTTON SPECULATION. 181 

Concludes of clothing lie must sure be scant, 

Especially of that part made of cotton. 
For through his tattered rags, all glazed with dirt, 
(Although she has a most observant eye), 
'Collar or wristbands she cannot espy, 
Or e'en the smallest vestige of a shirt. 

Then quick as thought she to her chamber flew, 
And from her husband's ample store 
Selected one he oft had wore, 
And in the beggar's lap the needed garment threw. 

He stammered out his thanks, and in his pack 
He stowed the gift, and swung it on his back ; 
Then took his leave, and toward a neighboring wood 
He bent his steps and made what speed he could. • 

There seated on a log he viewed his prize. 

As any tippler would with gin inflamed eyes ; 

And thus communed he with himself: " Shall I, 

To please the eyes of other people, die ? 

True, I am shirtless, but then, what's the harm ? 

We need more than our clothes to keep us warm. 

To clothe the outward man is sure a sin. 

If we neglect the better part within. 

' Tis true " man wants but little here below," 

Yet wants that little often — that we know. 

Rags will buy gin, and gin, I sure must have, 

Without, though clad in silks, I could not live. 

So here it goes !" The garment then he tore, 

And with the rags he hastsd to the store, 

And had his empty bottle filled once more. 

As out the wretch was passing with his gin. 
By chance the merchant's lady happened in. 
And to her husband thus : " What had he there 
Within that bottle ?" — " What ? Some gin my dear." 
" And could that wretched beggar thus deceive ? 
Can tears tell lies ? What shall we then believe ? 



182 

Stooping and sad, he tottered to our door, 

And begged I would 'have pity on the poor/ 

While like a child he wept, I could but heed 

His prayer, and gave him what he seemed to need; 

He'd not a rag of cotton on his skin ; 

And had he still the cash to purchase gin ? 

" He did not pay in cash," the man replied. 

" Not cash ! — and what had he to pay beside ?" 

" Why, rags." " He barter rags 1 What sort ? Speak quick ; 

I fear the wretch has played us both a trick." 

" Here is the bundle," said he, " if you doubt 

What it contains, just pull the fragments out.'' 

She drew them forth, and made the fellow stare, 

By loud exclaiming, " Sir, see there ! see there ! ! 

There is your name — I wrought it there myself — 

And that old ragged, dirty, lying elf, 

As great a hypocrite as e'er was born, 

Has sold you your own shirt, in pieces torn." 

Then, staring in the face of her liege lord, 
And suiting well her action to the word. 
With bitter irony, she thus exclaimed : 
" Dear sir, don't look confounded or ashamed ; 
For one of moderate means, and humble station. 
You've made a splendid cotton speculation." 

_ Another style of composition which occasionally 
served to relax a little the facial muscles, often made 
rigid by the contemplation of wrong and injustice, and 
to promote good nature among those engaged in war, 
was entitled, — ''•Mechanical Rhymes for these Curious 
Twies^^ or ''• Grists from Jimmy^s Mill.^'' 

It appears that Jimmy, who contributed to the work 
of reform by turning the crank of our printing press, 
(they are now worked by steam, in fact they were then, 
now that I think of it, for Jim was a steam engine of 



JIMMY S MILL. 



183 



the most approved construction,) had become thoroughly 
disgusted with the newspaper poetry of the times, and 
one day declared that he " cud grind out betther poetry 
nor that on the machine which he tuck over wid him 
from the ould country." 

" Jimmy," inquired I, " have you indeed a machine 
for grinding out poetry ? " 

" Troth I have, and it wud do your heart good to see 
it work when it is in order," said he. 

I bade Jimmy brush up the machine, have its joints 
or journals well oiled, and promised that when I should 
get hold of some facts suited to the purpose, we would 
give the machine a trial. Many a grist was subsequent- 
ly ground out on that mill, and so deeply did some of 
the dear 'children of the old Bay State get interested in 
these products of the machine and in the clever Irish- 
man who they supposed worked it, that when Dr. Jew- 
ett was expected at a certain point, some of the children 
asked their clergyman if he supposed the doctor would 
" bring that funny fellow, Jimmy, along with him." 

The following is hardly a fair specimen of Jimmy's 
work, as it will be seen that he got into the hopper some 
facts which seemed to have no very direct relation to 
the principal grist to be ground. It is my opinion, how- 
ever, that Jim intended, in a sly way, to hint to the 
Boston Distiller that he was not the first individual who 
had had the honor of tumbling into a fermenting vat. 
In fact, that Sambo had been there before him. And I 
suspect that when he afterwards got in the facts about 
Haman, which seemed so inappropriate, he really in- 
tended to give the distiller a hint that M% fate came very 
near being that of the Persian prime minister, who got 



184 

hanged on a gallows of his own construction. Of course 
when the doctor got hold of the machine, it ground out 
more regular rhymes than under Jimmy's management. 

THE BOSTON DISTILLER IN THE FERMENTING VAT. — A GRIST 
FROM jimmy's mill. 

A noted distiller of Boston fell into one of his fer- 
menting vats a few days previous to the appearance of 
the following article, and was dragged from it by the 
hands of his workmen in the establishment, but for 
whose timely interference he must have lost his life by 
strangulation. 

Doctor. " Jimmy, have you learned that a celebrated 
distiller fell into one of his fermenting vats a few days 
since, and came near losing his life by strangulation?" 

Jimmy. " Indaad I did. I read it in the paper ; and 
whin I told the matter to Micha^el McGowan's wife, she 
foch'd a scrame, and slapped her two big hands togither, 
and rin capering about the room like as if she'd been 
half mad. ' What ails you ? ' said I. ' What ails you ? ' 
said she, pouting out her lips and spaking my own words 
arter me, in a kind of mockin' way. ' Botheration to 
ye ! Doesn't them sa,me distillers make the vile crathur 
that pits strangulation down the necks of paple more 
dacent and honest nor themselves? Didn't my own 
cousin, Tim Taggerty, rest his sowl ! drink the liquor 
till it made him crazy entirely, and then put a rope on 
his neck and hang up in the barn ? and wasn't that 
strangulation ? Didn't Betty Cragin, whin she was drunk, 
roll her baste of a carcass on her own swate baby, that 
wasn't more nor sax weeks old, and smother the life out 
of it ? What was it but strangulation f And now, jist 



A GRIST FROM JIMMY's MILL. 



185 



because the distiller of all this divilmeiit got a small 
taste of his own midicin, they put it in the papers, and 
make sich a hellaballoo — ' " 

Br. " Hold, Jimmy 1 I have no time to hear more 
of Mistress McGowan's lecture on strangulation ; but, 
as you seem to be quite interested in the matter, suppose 
you put the facts in your patent rhyme-grinder, and turn 
us out something for the Journal." 

Jiin. "Faix! I'll do it." 

(He brings out the machine and commences opera- 
tions.) 




I'll sing you a song that is rare and queer, 

Of a nagar that fell in a vat of beer, 

Which was rendered so fine as he slowly decayed, 

That the liquor was praised. 

Its price was much raised. 
The business increased, and a fortune was made. 



Dr. " Jim, you make strange work. You were go- 
ing to grind out a song from facts that occurred in this 
western world, and your very first verse is about an old 
affair that happened twenty years ago, on the other side 
of the Atlantic." 

Jim. " Niver mind, doctor, jewel. I'll come to it 
directly." 

16* 



am 



186 A GRIST FROM JIMMY S MILL. 

(He turns again.) 

One Haman, the Scriptures relate, 

Got mad at the Jew, Mordecai, 
And built for him, outside the gate, 

A gallows some fifty feet high. 
" Ha ! ha ! " said his wife, " they will yet learn to fear us,— 
These stiff-necked, obstinate Jews ; 
Now go to the party with Ahasuerus, 

Be cheerful and banish the blues • 

Come, hurry, my honey, 

Drink wine and be funny." 

He went — and, bad luck to him ! made such a bother, 
He got himself hanged jist, instead of the other ! 
And he couldn't complain of the way it was done, 
For they let down the drap on a plan of his own. 

Dr. "Worse and worse, Jimmy! you are farther 
from your proper subject than before. You have wan- 
dered in point of distance as far as Persia ; and as to 
time, you have made a jump backward of more than two 
thousand years. What next ? " 

Jim. " Troth, yere mighty pertickular ! If you don't 
be azy stoppin me, I won't grind at all, at all, and ye 
may turn ye'rself." 

Br. " Well, let go the crank, and I'll give you a 
specimen of my work off-hand." 

(The Dr. now turns, while Jimmy looks on in amaze- 
ment.) 

The fire glowed bright beneath the still, 
And fiercely boiled the foaming flood, 

Destined the drunkard's veins to fill, 
To scorch his brain and fire his blood. 

The workmen cheerly plied their tasks, 



A GRIST FROM JIMMY'S MILL. 



187 



When in the great distiller came 
T' inspect the work ; and now he asks, 

" How boils the flood ? How burns the flame ? " 
Vexed that the hell-broth cooks so slow, 

He mounts a vat with careless tread, 
To stir the mixtures vile below. 

But slips, and plunges over head ! 
Panting and gasping hard for breath, 

He would have yielded there to death ; 
But helping hands were now applied, 

WTiich dragged him up the slippery side, 
And forth from that fermenting vat, 

Resemblins: much a drowned wharf-rat. 



Bedaubed with yeasty slime and foam. 
Fragrant and dripping as he passed, 

This great distiller sought his home — 
By sad experience taught at last 

This truth contained in Holy Writ :— 

Who for his neighbor digs a pity 

Will sometime tumble into it ! 



CHAPTER XIII. 



The Widow's Son— In tlie " Slough of Despond "—A fight for Life- 
Victorious — The Moral — A Speculation — Still moralizing — The 
Longevity of Reformers. 

While a resident of Providence, R. I., during the year 
1839, I had made the acquaintance, in the office where 
our temperance paper was printed, of two young men, 
practical printers, who, like three-fourths of that craft, 
were pretty free drinkers of intoxicating liquors. They 
were both, however, excellent compositors, and in com- 
mon parlance clever fellows, in the American sense of 
the word clever, i. e., well disposed. One of them, the 
older, James Gary, had been a soldier in the regular 
army for years and had of course seen rough times. I 
used frequently to caution them against tlie habits they 
indulged in, but like millions of others they were igno- 
rant of the real relation of alcoholic liquors to the physical 
constitution of man, and were under that spell or delu- 
sion with which narcotics blind and bind their victims. 
I could see from month to month, yes, even from week to 
week, that the power of the habit was increasing, and 
earnestly urged them to abstain ; but it was in vain. " I 
can drink or let it alone, as I choose." " Don't worry 
about this child." "I can take care of No. 1," and "A 
man is a fool that can't govern himself and stop when 

(188) 



THE widow's son. 189 

he chooses," <fec. All this I had heard hundreds of times 
before. It was the old storj over again. At length the 
younger of the two, George W. Warner, (we called him 
Jerry,) called at my house one evening, in incipient 
delirium. He talked strangely, and seemed very much 
alarmed. I tried to persuade him to go over to the 
Dexter Asylum, and suffer confinement or restraint for 
a few days, until he should recover from his present 
attack and regain his power of self-control. He hesi- 
tated, and said he would go home to his mother's resi- 
dence, (she was a widow,) and think it over, and would 
come in and see me again in the morning. That night 
he cut his throat. Not fatally, however ; for our excel- 
lent surgeon. Miller, dressed his wounds, and he seemed 
in a fair way to recover. Before the wounds were 
healed, however, he got out to a drinking saloon, and 
although its proprietor knew what had happened to him 
while in delirium tremens, yet he handed down the de- 
canter of liquor to him again. The poor deluded, ruined 
man took another draught ; his delirium returned, and 
he made another attempt at self-destruction, and this 
time with success. Thus the Demon of the Still and 
the Cup could again exult as in the language of the song : 

" Tlie widow mourns for her ruined son. 
What matter I what matter ! our icork is done ! ! " 

His companion, Gary, was alarmed and drank less for 
a while, but soon filled his glass as before and hurried on 
his way to ruin. The typos of Providence, three-fourths 
of whom drank daily, but not quite so deeply or fre- 
quently as Gary, regarded him as a disgrace to the 
craft, and raised a purse for him, on condition that he 



190 IN THE "SLOUGH OF DESPOND." 

would at once leave the city and not return. He left, 
and went to Boston. Among the results of long intem- 
perance, ulcers had formed on his legs, and they were so 
offensive that he could no longer be tolerated in a print- 
ing office. The workmen would at once rebel, and in- 
sist that he must leave the office or they would. He 
was now pretty much at the end of his chain. He 
could get no work, was out of money, and for some days 
begged his food about the city and slept, when night 
came, in an old building near the wharf, among old bar- 
rels and boxes, as he afterwards told me. He had heard 
that I was in the city, and learning my whereabouts, 
came into my office on Cornhill late one afternoon and 
begged for money to buy food and a cheap lodging. He 
had suffered so much from the cold the night previous, 
that he dared not lodge among the barrels again. I 
gave him some money, extorting from him a promise 
that he would expend none of it for liquor and would 
come to my office the next morning. But what could 
be done with this ragged, bloated, diseased, weak, sham.- 
bling, degraded, offensive creature ? There was then no 
inebriate asylum to which I could send him. He was 
just on the very verge of death and a drunkard's doom. 
I remembered him as he was when I first met him, and 
thought of his companion and the manner of his death. 
But what could be done for him ? — that was the practical 
question which pressed itself upon my mind ; and I am 
telling this story, reader, because I wish that same 
practical question to press itself upon yours, concerning 
the wretched remnants of manhood all about you which 
the liquor traffic is sending to the grave. I went to my 
home in Newton, a few miles out of the city, stated 



A FIGHT FOR LIFE. 191 

the case to my wife, and after consultation we decided 
to make an effort for his salvation from the threatened 
doom. We had then six children of our own, and this 
was not a promising child to adopt into one's family; 
could not bring a certificate of good character ; did not 
look very well, and withal, other senses revolted at his 
presence. I took him home, however, on the following 
day, furnished him a room, made such improvements in 
his persoiiale as soap, water, and clean clothing could 
do, and he was '^ one of us^ It was a bitter pill to 
swallow, that. Those compounded of aloes and assa- 
foetida are sugar-plums in comparison. But what else 
could we do but to make the trial ? The widow's son, 
his former companion, had come to me in Providence, 
and I had given him — advice. That was all ; and the 
rum-seller and the razor had given him — death. Who 
would make an effort now to save Gary, if we did not ? 
That was the question. James Gary was saved ; but it 
cost us five months board at — how much per week ? 
His clothes did not cost much, for he wore those I had 
cast off, but they were clean, although here and there 
ornamented with a patch. You would have laughed, 
reader, to have seen the set of them, for my weight is 
about a hundred and eighty and he was as thin as Oliver 
Twist, who fared sumptuously on gruel, as you remember. 
But what a struggle the poor fellow had for a few days ! 
The presiding genius of that home, (I had told him to 
call her mother,) had to make him a good many cups 
of strong coffee, and to bake for him a good many cus- 
tards, and speak to him a good many encouraging words, 
during the first week. " Do not leave us, James, how- 
ever badly you may feel ; stay with us come what may, 



192 VISITORS. 

and we will do all we can for you." " I will, ma'am. 
I '11 stick by, live or die. If I die with the tremens, 
I'll die here." ''That is right, James ; but you will not 
die. You may feel sometimes as if you would die, but 
you will not ; you will live to retrieve the past ; you have 
had a terrible education, but never mind, you'll be a 
man yet." 

Such used to be the talk. In a few weeks, the ulcers 
upon his limbs healed without other medicine than pure 
water applied externally and internally, with clean 
dressings or bandages for his limbs, which he was able 
personally to manage. His appetite for food increased, 
and he gained flesh and strength daily. His shambling 
gait gave place to a regular and firin step, and at the 
end of five months he concluded that he was sufficiently 
strong in body, mind, and will-power, to be able to face 
the temptations of the city and to keep his pledge. I 
got him a situation in a printing office in the city, gave 
the journeymen printers an opportunity to assist me in 
getting him an entire new suit of clothes, and with the 
first money he earned he got a nice gilt frame for his tem- 
perance pledge, and hung it up in the sitting-room at his 
boarding-house that all might see what were the views and 
purposes of James Gary, the reformed man, in relation 
to the use of intoxicating liquors. Through the re- 
mainder of his life, which continued for many years, 
and which was honored and blessed by the gift of a good 
wife and a lovely daughter, he kept his pledge. I visited 
him occasionally in company with his " mother," as he 
called a lady friend of mine. The last time I dined 
with him, he still resided in Boston on a certain street 
upon which, directly opposite, was a distillery. As I 



THE MORAL. 193 

stood beside him looking out of the front window, I 
pointed to the distillery and remarked: "Well, James, 
you have your old enemy pretty close at hand." " Yes," 
he replied, " but I thank God, I am his master now." 

Reader, the lessons to be learned from this story, for 
there are a number of them, are, first, The tendencies 
of the drinking system, and of the practice of absti- 
nence are quite opposite. Secondly, Drunkards who 
have gone down to a certain level cannot be saved with- 
out great sacrifices on the part of somebody. Thirdly, 
It will cost us, as a people, too much to rescue thus all the 
drunkards, or one-fourth of them, which the liquor sys- 
tem, if continued, will turn off. Therefore^ and finally, 
that system should come to an end. Father, mother, 
one of a coming crop of drunkards may be that bright- 
eysd boy of yours. Look to it. 

Altliough genuine reforms are aggressive and pro- 
gressive, and from time to time present to the worker in 
them, new problems to solve, and to the public, new and 
interesting phases to contemplate, yet with the toilers, 
those called in the Providence of God to devote them- 
selves especially to the work of demolishing the old and 
constructing the new,- it is much as with laborers in 
other callings and professions ; i.e., the labor of to-day is 
YQTj like the labor of yesterday. There is a sameness 
which would become very tiresome to one who was simply 
laboring for the money paid him ; but to the laborer 
whose heart is in the work, who accepts partial failure 
here and there as evidence only of imperfection in the 
use of means, which it is his business, and that of his 
co-workers to rectify; whose faith and hope are con- 
stantly stretciiing forward to the glorious end sought, 
9 



194 STILL MORALIZING. 

there are peculiarities attaching to reformatory labor 
which render it very pleasant. 

It conduces to health, not only by giving constant 
exercise to the muscles and mind, but because it gives 
exercise to the emotional nature of man. 

The feelings and affections of men, their emotional 
natures, call for exercise as well as the muscles and the 
mind. So far as health is concerned, I believe it is far 
better that a man should shout for joy at the contempla- 
tion of the grand, the glorious, the happy, at one hour 
of the day, scowl with righteous indignation in view of 
wrong and injustice, at another, and weep with the 
suffering, and sorrowing, still another, than simply to 
read in his easy chair the morning news, take his usual 
business rounds during the day, digest his meals, and go 
off impassively to his bed without his emotional nature 
having been once stirred during the day. 

We were made to feel as well as to think and act ; and 
the non-use of any of our powers and faculties tends to 
dwarf them, and render impossible that symmetrical 
growth of our whole nature in which alone is the highest 
health and happiness. Excessive grief, anger, or joy 
may endanger our health or life, but their frequent alter- 
nation, and moderate indulgence, I believe, are not only 
helpful to men's moral and spiritual natures, but also to 
their bodily health. 

Some men would be far better Christians if they 
would occasionally visit the abodes of the unfortunate, 
and witness suffering which would moisten their eyes ; 
aye, more, they would be better Christians if they would 
get angry every day. Of course, the passion of anger 
should only be excited by the contemplation of wrong, 
injustice, cruelty to man, or beast. 



THE LONGEVITY OF REFORMERS. 195 

Certainly there is enough of these all around us to 
excite indignation, if we were good enough Christians 
CO get angry. These reflections are preliminary, reader, 
to an important item of information, and some hints at 
the philosophy of the facts stated. First, more than 
three-fourths of the early earnest workers in the tem- 
perance cause, whose labor in it was sufficiently earnest 
and protracted to make them extensively known as re- 
formers, lived to pass their seventy-fifth year. No such 
longevity can be shown in connection with any other 
profession, or class of men of this age. Unless we con- 
clude that health and long life were miraculously be- 
stowed upon them as rewards of well doing, we must 
conclude that the facts stated admit of some philosoph- 
ical explanation. 

The latter conclusion is the more rational, I think, 
but what is the explanation ? 

That their abstinence from the use of alcoholic liquors 
conduced to health is unquestionable, and there is as 
little reason to doubt that the constant and healthful 
activity of brain and muscle, which attention to their 
ordinary duties, and their reformatory labors together 
secured, contributed to the same end ; and for myself, 
I believe that the constant excitement of their emotional 
nature, which was inseparably coimected with their 
labors as reformers, added another element of health 
and" longevity. 

If I am right in my philosophy, here is an argument 
for engaging in reformatory movements which, I hope, 
may have weight with my readers who desire health and 
long life.* 

* See note A in Appendix. 



CHAPTER XIY. 

OUR LEADERS AND CHAMPIONS. 

Rev. Dr. Justin Edwards — The First New England Regiments — 
Personal Peculiarities — Rev. John Pierpont — The Freedom of the 
Pulpit assailed — A Masterly Defence — Logic — Logic Versified — 
The License System — Sarcasm — Legitimate employment of it — 
Awful Exposures — Shall we give it wings ? Yes — '' Lament in 
Rhyme, Lament in Prose " — Square hits — Summing Up. 

The sad facts which render reform necessary, the 
specific ends aimed at by the reformers, the great truths, 
or principles upon which they base their movement, and 
the instrumentalities by which they propose to attain 
the desired end, these are the objects which most inter- 
est the public mind in connection with any enterprise 
of a reformatory character ; but next to these, they are 
interested with the personnel of its leaders. Presuming 
that my readers who have followed me thus far in this 
narrative, are quite familiar with the interesting points 
above referred to, I will endeavor to gratify a natural 
curiosity which they may be supposed to possess, to 
know more of the men who stood forth as the prominent 
champions of the new movement at that period of the 
reform, and on that part of our great field of operations 
now imder consideration. 

In respect to the character and abilities of those who 
by common consent were granted the first place among 
the reformers of New England, from 1835 to 1845, we 

(196) 




JUSTIN EDWARDS. D. D- 



REV. DR. JUSTIN EDWARDS. 197 

had but one thing to desire, that was organizing talent. 
Neither Rev. Dr. Edwards, John Pierpont, or L. M. 
Sargent, were organizers. Every other faculty needed, 
they possessed in large measure. It would be difficult 
to find three men more unlike each other than the three 
named, and yet they were in perfect accord on this 
great question, and there was this striking similarity in 
their history, as connected with the temperance reform. 
Neither of the trio ever struck a blow at the wicked system 
assaulted^ or any guihy supporter of it, which tvas suc- 
cessfully parried. The first, because he struck so care- 
fully, and apparently with a heaven-directed aim. The 
the two last, because their blows were given with such 
consummate skill, and with a human power, which 
broke down by sheer force the guard of their opponent, 
however skillful he might be of fence. For the skull 
of the fencer, it was fortunate if that too were not cleft 
in the encounter. 

Dr. Edwards was one of the earliest advocates of ab- 
stinence. In 1823 he made a communication to a cler- 
ical body, of which he was a member, on the evils of 
using intoxicating liquors at fune.rals. His views were 
extensively published, and that absurd and mischievous 
custom began to decline from the date of their publica- 
tion. In 1825 lie wrote the tract entitled the " Well 
Conducted Farm," a most valuable article, w^hich had 
also an immense circyilation. It was through his agency 
also that a meeting of a few friends took place in 
Boston preliminary to the formation of " The American 
Society for the Promotion of Temperance," which was 
formed February 13th, 1826. He drafted the Constitu- 
tion of that society. The Address which they sent 



198 THE FIRST NEW ENGLAND REGIMENTS. 

forth to the public expressive of their views and pur- 
poses was written by him. As the corresponding sec- 
retary of the society and their authorized agent, he 
raised in Boston, Salem, Newburyport, Andover, and 
Northampton, ^7,400 as a financial basis of their oper- 
ations. During the month of September, 1826, he set 
on foot a movement in Andover, Mass., which resulted 
in the formation there of a local temperance society, 
consisting of more than fifty heads of families and an 
hundred and fifty young men, a large proportion of them 
students of the theological seminary there located. To 
his personal efforts more than to those of any other 
man, or score of men, was the reform indebted for the 
forms it took and the influence it exerted in New Eng- 
land, up to the year 1837. He was one of the wisest 
men in council I ever knew, and there was never any 
deduction to be made from his influence or labors on 
account of rashness, crudeness, or ill temper. In all 
his labor, as a reformer, I presume no man was ever 
prejudiced against the cause or its advocates, by any 
injudicious or unkind word of his. Although not an 
orator, in the popular sense of the term, the simplicity, 
sincerity, gentleness, and eminently Christian spirit of 
the man, won all hearts, and gave his words weight and 
power wherever he addressed the people. He was an 
active participant in the labor of those two great Con- 
A'-entions which I have already described, that of 1839 
and that of 1840. With the entire absence of all self- 
seeking and vanity in this great and good man, there 
was no want of confidence in himself as a pioneer or 
leader in a great movement. It was once said of Sam- 
uel Adams, the old Boston Patriot, that he wished New 



PERSONAL PECULIARITIES. 199 

England to control the policy of the country, that Bos- 
ton should govern New England, and he wished to shape 
the policy and government of Boston ; and, said the 
speaker, if his wishes could be realized, no part of the 
country would be intentionally ill-governed. The same 
remark might have been made of Dr. Edwards in con- 
nection with the temperance reform. The confidence 
in his ability to guide in the enterprise, was not the off- 
spring of vanity or self-conceit, but it originated in his 
knowledge of the fact, which no acquaintance of the 
Doctor ever doubted, that he had given more time and 
thought to the consideration of the subject, than any 
half dozen of his compeers. 

While acting as the agent of the Massachusetts 
Temperance Union, Dr. Edwards was one of my most 
trusted advisers in times of trouble, or in reference to 
matters of doubt. He passed away from the scene of 
his earthly labors much earlier in life than most of his 
co-laborers. In any truthhful and general history of the 
reform, especially of its inception and earliest periods, 
the labors of Dr. Edwards must be conspicuous. 

While yet a citizen and servant of Rhode Island, I 
had heard much of Rev. John Pierpont of Boston. In 
my attendance on the memorable convention of the years 
1839 and '40, 1 had seen the gentleman, and noticed the 
high estimation in which he was held in Boston where he 
had long resided and labored, and had ventured a refer- 
ence to him in the poem recited by me before the con- 
vention of 1840, which called forth a round of applause, 
more out of compliment to the subject than the style of 
the reference. Anticipating a possible, yea, a very 
probable failure to deal worthily with the giant curse of 



200 REV. JOHN PIERPONT. 

the world, the rum Devil, in the effort I was about to 
make, I counseled the thousands before me as to what 
should be done in that event, as follows : 

" Faint not, but bid your Pierpont take the quill, 
And point keen satire's dart with half his skill. 
Then shall the well directed weapon fly, 
Home to its mark, and bid the Demon die.'* 

Soon after I became an agent of the Massachusetts 
Temperance Union, I sought his acquaintance, and en- 
joyed his friendship during his lengthy and most useful 
life. 

Like Dr. Edwards, he was one of my counselors, and 
I ran to him at all times with freedom and confidence. 
Not as I did to Dr. Edwards, to ask his judgment as to 
what was to be done, but how best to do it. There were 
few better scholars in New England than Jolm Pierpont. 
There were no better logicians. He would have re- 
sponded heartily to the sentiment of Holmes in the last 
line of his poem on the Deacon's one-horse shay, that 
" lived one hundred years to a day," 

Its history closed in this very odd way ; 
" Logic is logic, that's what I say." 

With Pierpont, logic was logic, and in the discussion 
with him of a mooted question, the opponent who did 
not look well to his logic, would suffer severely. He 
had the rare faculty of so grouping facts, that the logi- 
cal sequence or conclusion was seen at a glance. In his 
controversy with the Distillers, Importers, and Whole- 
sale liquor dealers of his congregation, in HoUis street, 
they learned that fact to their cost. As the reader may 



THE FREEDOM OF THE PULPIT ASSAILED. 201 

not be familiar with the facts, I will briefly state them. 
In his public discom^ses before his people, as well as 
with his pen, he had expressed opinions relative to the 
entire system of making, selling, and drinking intoxi- 
cants, in terms not flattering. Some members oi his 
congregation, who were largely engaged in the business, 
possessed of immense wealth, and consequently accus- 
tomed to have things pretty much their own way, could 
not endure to be thus disturbed by the words of their 
minister, whom they supposed they could easily control, 
and determined to compel him to vacate the pulpit. 
They trumped up a series of charges against him, seri- 
ously affecting his character as a minister and a man, 
and on these charges, after much discussion, agreed to 
go with him before a mutual council. Some of the 
churches who were invited to be represented in that 
council by delegates, refused altogether on account of 
the grossness of those charges. Finding their plans 
thwarted in that direction, they dropped the gross 
charges, and then proposed to go before a council on 
certain minor ones, which they retained. 

Mr. Pierpont's answer to the committee is perhaps as 
good a specimen of controversial writing as has been 
put in print on this side the Atlantic. I will give the 
reader a few extracts which will, I think, justify the 
assertions I have made concerning the ability of him 
whom I have ventured to call our temperance Ajax, 
though unlike him, he never became blind. That splen- 
did eye of his was as clear and pleasant at the age of 
eighty as at fifty for aught I could see. 

" But, gentlemen, passing by this commendable jeal- 
ousy of yours for the welfare of the Christian cause at 



202 A MASTERLY DEFENCE. 

large, I cannot see — though you may — how you can 

justify yourselves-, as an accusing, and a prosecuting 
committee of a particular society of Christians, whose 
sole " purpose" it is to extrude its pastor from his pul- 
pit in thus giving his greater sins the go-by, and bring- 
ing him before a council for his less. If you believe that 
the charges brought against me last July are true — 
charges of impurity of mind, indecency of language, 
and frauds and falsehoods in business— it seems to me 
that you owe it to yourselves, to your own church, to all 
the churches, and to " the Christian cause'' at large, to 
prosecute those charges to final judgment. To your- 
selves you owe it ; — for you will thus prove yourselves 
true men, in that you have said of me only what you 
believe is true. To your object you owe it ; — for, if 
those specific allegations are proved, not only am I cast 
out of my own pulpit, and every other pulpit, but I am 
branded with disgrace to your entire satisfaction ; and 
thus your object is effected. You owe it to your own 
church, to all other churches, and to the Christian cause 
at large ; for all these ought to be ministered to with 
clean hands. If, on the other hand, you do not believe 
that those atrocious charges are true, let me ask you, as 
men who have either " raised a false report," or taken 
up a reproach against your neighbor," and accused him 
falsely, whether you do not owe it to me to retract those 
accusations ; — openly, frankly, manfully to retract them ; 
retract them as solemnly as you have made them ; re- 
tract them in a document signed by all of you who have 
put your names to them^ that I may file it with the other 
papers in this case ; and retract them, too, upon the 
records of your society, so far as you have placed them 



A MASTERLY DEFENCE. 203 

there ; — placed them there before they were communi- 
cated to me, and before I ever saw them ; placed them 
there, as I cannot but think, in an evil hour for your- 
selves." 

" So of all the rest of those vile specifications affecting 
my integrity and veracity. Bring me where I can con- 
front the witnesses by which you have ever hoped to 
prove them, and I will brand " False" upon the forehead 
of every one of them, with a stamp that shall burn to 
the bone. 

This I expected to be allowed to do when I accepted 
your call to go before a Council with you, upon those 
charges " as reasons for the dissolution of my connexion" 
with you. This I had a right to expect. I have long 
expected, and I expect it yet. I have waited patiently 
for that time to come. For fifteen weeks I waited for 
your " Grounds of Complaint" to be forthcoming. Was 
not that long enough ? If not, time was your own, — 
why not have taken fifteen weeks more ? But they ap- 
peared at last, leaning for support, upon those false and 
libelous specifications ; and now, after thirteen weeks 
more of negotiation, during which your call was accepted 
on my part, a council agreed upon by both parties, and 
defeated — you shall say by which — I am asked to go 
before a council upon a list of complaints from which all 
those accusations of fraud and falsehood are left out, on 
the ground that their character prevented some of the 
churches invited upon the council from accepting the 
invitation ! Gentlemen, we have just heard of an at- 
tempt upon the life of the French king. In the hearti- 
ness of his hate, the regicide had rammed his carbine 
so full of bullets and buck-shot that the barrel burst 



204 LOGIC. 

and tore his assassin hand. Have you, gentlemen, 
loaded your piece so deep, that neither will the churches 
come within hearing of it, nor even your council stand 
by you when you let it off? And do you now " call" 
upon me to wait awhile, that you may draw the heaviest 
of your balls, and then let you try the rest ? Gentlemen, 
I commend your caution in this, but I cannot consult 
your convenience. 

No, gentlemen ; as individuals, and as a body, you 
have made an atrocious attack upon my character, not 
as a clergyman only, but as a man ; and when you con- 
sider that in morals, as well as in physics, action and 
reaction are equal, you will see at once, that the blow, 
if not fatal to me, will be so to yourselves. To me it is 
fatal if your charges are true ; to you, if they are false 
and malicious. Either meet me wpon them or retract them, 
I demand it of you, that if you do not retract them as 
above suggested, you carry me before a council, convoked 
expressly — not to attend to something else first, and 
then to take them up, if perchance they are of a mind 
to but — for the trial of your case as presented in your 
" Grounds" of last July, and with the knowledge, on 
the part of the council, that it is to take cognizance of 
those charges, and in your own words, " to deliberate 
and decide thereupon;" a council before which I can 
confront both my accusers and their witnesses. Or, if 
you will not do this, I think you will have no good rea- 
son to complain, if, remembering that not only as a 
clergyman^ but as a citizen, I am under the protection 
of the laws, I carry your where you will be compelled 
either to plead " guilty," in an action of libel, or to 
come yourselves, with your witnesses, where I can con- 
front you both." 



LOGIC, VERSIFIED. 205 

I have said that Pierpont was a fine logician. His 
logic was distinguished from that article as employed 
by most men. It was not the hard, dry logic of the 
metaphysician, but rather an animated, ornamented 
article, having as it were the freshness of the dew-damp 
lawn, and the fragrance of flowers about it. Strong as 
iron, bat ever with a touch of poetry to set it off. So, 
too, much of his verse was didactic, rhymed argument, 
philosophy, and logic on fire, and measured in dactyls 
perhaps, or Spencerian stanzas. Some able men who pos- 
sessed both the logical, and the poetic faculties, have, like 
John Milton, given us splendid arguments, and immortal 
verse, bub rarely on the same page. Many articles from 
the pen of Pierpont could be quoted in which we have 
both in a delightful compound. 

A few extracts from some of his writings will, I think, 
justify the statement, that unlike most writers, he could 
put logic, and the very soul of poetry into the same 
stanzas. 

From a poem which fi.rst appeared, if I rightly recol- 
lect, in 1834, in which he gave the license system such 
a tremendous blow, I make the following extracts : 

" For so much gold we license thee," 

So say our laws, " a draught to sell, 
That bows the strong, enslaves the free, 

And opens wide the gates of hell ; 
For ' pubUc good' requires that some 
Should live, since many die, by rum.'* 

" And will ye give to man a bill 

Divorcing him from Heaven's high sway, 

And, while God says, 'thou shalt not kill*— 
Say ye, • for gold, ye may, — ye may ?* 

Compare the body with the soul ! 

Compare the bullet with the bowl I '* 



\ 



206 SARCASM — LEGITIMATE EMPLOYMENT OF IT. 

" In whicli is felt the j&ereer blast 

Of the destroying angel's breath ? ^ 
Which binds its victim the more fast? 

Which kills him with the deadlier death ? 
Will ye the felon fox restrain 
And yet take off the tiger's chain ?" 

The following stanza from a later poem, will, I think, 
further contribute to justify the opinion I have expressed 
of the peculiar character of his writings. 

" The prisoner's cell, that all 

Life's blessed light bedims, 
The lash that cuts, the links that gall 

The poor slaves festering limbs, — 
What is this thraldom, to the chain 
That binds and burns the drunkard's brain ?" 

Beside the faculties I have referred to, he possessed 
others which fitted him in an eminent degree to render 
to a great reformatory work like that in which we are 
engaged, incalculable service. Every vile system and 
every debasing vice has about it certain points or phases 
which render it fair game for ridicule and expose it to 
the laugh even of good men. The poet Pollock, it may 
be remembered, in his " Course of Time," makes hy- 
pocrisy appear not only a sin against God, but so 
supremely ridiculous that the spirits even of good men 
cannot resist the inclination to laugh at it, even before 
the bar of final judgment. 

" Tlie righteous smiled, and even Despair itself 
Some signs of laughter gave." 

No wicked system that curses this earth presents so 
many ridiculous aspects as that with which we are con- 



AWFUL EXPOSURES. 207 

tending. Think of a human being outside an asylum 
for idiots, sucking a mint julep through a straw. Think 
for a moment of distinguished gentlemen around a pub- 
lic table, bobbing and bowing to each other across it, and 
drinking to the health of " Her Majesty," or " Our ex- 
cellent President," or " Count von Bismark." Why not 
nod or grin, hem, cough, or sneeze to his health, instead 
of drinking to it ? It would* be a safer operation. A 
simultaneous nod or grin or hem could be given by the 
whole company without injury to stomach or brain, to 
intellect or morals. But all this will not do. We must 
drink to the health of something. No matter what, a 
Prince, a President, or a Donkey, so that men can make 
an occasion for another drink. 

Reader, think of this — and think, too, of many other 
tom-fooleries enacted in comiection with the drink sys- 
tem, and then tell me if a keen sense of the ludicrous, 
wit, and ability to deal in biting sarcasm would not be 
desirable faculties for one who should attack such a sys- 
tem. All these Pierpont possessed in an eminent de- 
gree. His poem, entitled " The Lament of the Albany 
Brewers," is all we care to adduce to prove himi possess- 
ed of wit, not a whit behind that of Butler, as exempli- 
fied in " Hudibras." 

Mr. Delevan had made a terrible expose of the char- 
acter of Albany ale, or beer. The wealthy brewers 
brought an action against him for the injury he had in- 
flicted upon their business, and laid their damages at 
8100,000. In the legal trial of the ease they were 
beaten, as Mr. Delevan proved all ha liad stated. He 
proved that the pond from which they obtained water 
for their brewing purposes was a common receptacle for 



208 SHALL WE GIVE IT WINGS? YES. 

dead animals ; that the drainage of a certain slaughter- 
house and glue factory was into that pond. For the 
purposes of the trial and to aid the jury in understand- 
ing the case, a map was made of the pond, and the par- 
ticular points where this or that fact occurred, sworn to 
by the witnesses, was indicated by figures. At No. 6, a 
certain swine had gone to pieces just in the edge of the 
water, after, of course, his breathing had been stopped 
by disease. There, at No. — , dead dogs had been seen 
floating, and there, a horse had decomposed, &c., &c. 
A pamphlet containing a report of the trial, with the ex- 
planatory map, reached Mr. Pierpont, and as he read, 
that fine brain of his conceived the idea of helping the 
brewers express^ -in a style which they -never could have 
equaled, their regrets over the prospective ruin ot their 
business as the result of this expose. That job was 
done con amore^ and the man who can read that poem 
without sore sides, should never be expected to laugh 
again. I shall never lose the recollection of the pleas- 
ure I derived from hearing the poem read by its author 
from the manuscript copy, in his own study. It afforded 
a joy for memory. 

Having concluded the reading, he remarked, with just 
a touch of sadness, " After all, I fear I have labored in 
vain, for I doubt if I shall be able to get the article be- 
fore the public through any proper channel. I sent it 
to our mutual friend, Marsh, and he declines to publish 
it in the ' Temperance Journal,' fearing a legal attack 
from the brewers." " I think Damrell will venture to 
publish it," I replied. " Allow me to read it to him 
this eve, and I will soon let you know his conclusion." 
He put the manuscript in my hands, and I had another 



"LAMENT IN RHYME LAMENT IN PROSE." 209 

treat in reading it to that sterling friend of the cause, 
Wm. S. Damrell. He decided at once that he would 
share with me the responsibility of publishing it. We 
got that comical genius, D. C. Johnston, to illustrate 
the subject in a proper drawing, representing the pond, 
the slaughter-house, glue factory, the dead animals, &c., 
&c., in situ, with which, from a plain wood cut, we em- 
bellished our sheet. We give our readers a specimen 
verse or two, and shall, ere long, reprint the poem en- 
tire, illustrated, as our contribution for 1871 to the 
popularity of Albany ale. Whether it has improved in 
quality since the trial of Mr. Delevan, I am not in- 
formed. 

I iiope the reader is aware of the fact that the water 
used in the manufacture of the famous London porter, 
is taken from the river Thames, into which thousands 
of sewers empty ; and it is urged, in general, that water 
rich in impurities makes the better beer. 

Referring to the proved fact that a certain swine had 
Ciecomposed just in the edge of the pond from which 
they obtained water for their vats, the poet makes them 
exclaim : — 

" Thou ponderous porker, who "wert numbered six 
Upon tlie map in Delevan's report I 
Who didst sink into our Albanian styx, 
And rise again before the Circuit Court ; 
Like sightless Sampson, there thou madest sport 
For temperance Philistines ; but 'tis clear 
The very place for thee was in our wort. 
Why should not we, who have from year to year 
Our beer in hogsheads put — put hogsheads in our beer ? " 

Again, in the most touching manner, he makes the 



210 "Wl' SAUT TEARS TRICKLING DOWN YOUR NOSE." 

brewers acknowledge their obligations to the dogs, which 
decomposing in the pond, had helped them to give 
" body ' ' to their beer. 

" Ye murdered dogs, who, when ye had your day, 
Were wont by moonlight o'er yon graves to howl ; 
Who from cash customers would walk away, 
But at the ragged ones would turn and growl ; 
Though round our premises no more ye prowl, 
Against the loafer to keep watch and ward. 
Still do ye serve us, though reformers scowl ; 
For since ye dangled in the strangling cord, 
Ye've helped make many a lout as tipsy as a lord.'* 

The services rendered the brewers by the slaughter 
house is thus acknowledged : 

" Bullocks, who bellowed just before your blood 
Was, for our benefit, poured out like water. 
Dreamed ye, as erst ye lay and chewed the cud, 
That from yon house where ye were led to slaughter, 
There would drain down for many a blowzy daughter 
Of our good city, who sits guzzling ale. 
Such real stuff ? Our trial now hath taught her, 
(Grew she not, as she read it, very pale ?) 
That from your horns and hoofs there hangeth quite a tale." 

It would occupy too many of our pages even to make 
a catalogue of the contributions of this master mind to 
the literature of our enterprise. Yerj many of the 
strongest arguments against the use of intoxicants and 
the liquor traffic now effectively employed by all advo- 
cates of the cause, were first mined and hammered into 
shape by that massive brain. He was a laborious stu- 
dent, and studied thoroughly every phase of a great 
question before he gave to the public his views thereon. 



SQUARE HITS. 211 

His forms of expression, which were very iron for 
strength, had also a finish which the most delicate taste 
and the most consumate skill in the use of language 
only could give. His public discourses, which, when 
studied, were always able and aptly illustrated, had one 
striking peculiarity which distinguished them from all 
other temperance discourses to which it has been my 
fortune to listen. They bristled with sharp points which 
could never be forgotten by the hearer. Those who 
never listened to him will best understand me from a 
few examples. 

Contrasting, on a certain occasion, the liquor traffic 
with other offences against society, he said : 

" The highwayman, from his lurking place, springs 
into your path, and, presenting a pistol to your head, 
demands your money. But mark his language : ' Your 
money or your life.' Here, now, is a chance for you to 
choose ; and as men generally prefer to part with their 
money on the instant rather than their lives, you give 
up your purse, and the chances are that thus you save 
your life. But what is the language of the liquor-seller 
as he passes over the counter or bar his infernal poisons? 
' Your money and your life.' " 

Such utterances, accompanied by appropriate gestures, 
and that expression of intense earnestness with which 
he was wont to utter his thoughts, fastened his words in 
your memory as securely as bearded hooks may be fast- 
ened in the flesh. On one occasion, where the use of a 
commodious house of worship had been denied to the 
friends of temperance for the reason that, if used by 
them, the carpets, which were new, would be soiled, Mr. 
Pierpont, in his speech on the occasion, said : " Per- 



212 - SUMMING UP. 

haps it may be best, though I beg leave to doubt it, to 
keep the carpets clean and let the souls go dirty.'''' 

No man better understood the importance of empha- 
sizing just the right word. 

On one • occasion the writer had commented, in his 
hearing, on the prohibition of wine to the priesthood of 
that age — Aaron and his sons — and recited the passage 
which indicates the penalty of disobedience — " Lest ye 
die." 

At the close of the service, Mr. Pierpont grasped my 
hand, and with an expression of earnestness which 
burned his words into my memory, said, *' Doctor, bear 
hard on that Ye. Strong emphasis on that one word, 
only can bring out the full force of that passage." 

Let the reader study carefully and critically the tenth 
chapter of Leviticus, and he will rightly estimate the 
value of that suggestion. 

I cannot close this imperfect sketch of this great man 
and earnest reformer, without expressing the hope that 
some one competent to the task, will collect the most 
important, if not all his writings and reported speeches 
in reference to the temperance question, and give them 
to the public in a fitting form, with such explanations of 
the circumstances under which they were written or 
uttered, as will greatly enhance their interest, not only 
to earnest friends of temperance, but to the general 
reader. 

That our departed friend held opinions on religious 
and other subjects which many good men regarded as 
unsound, is undoubtedly true. His opinions in relation 
to the sale and use of intoxicants were by many thought 
false and quite revolutionary, but that fact did not prove 



SUMMING UP. 213 

them false. He was an independent thinker, and was 
governed by his own convictions, and not those of other 
people. ThosS personally acquainted with him could 
not doubt that his expressed opinions, on every subject, 
were honestly entertained and conscientiously advocated. 
If, for any cause, that glorious spirit is denied, in the 
world to which it has gone, the companionship of the 
good and the pure, of those who love righteousness and 
hate iniquity, injustice, and wrong, in every form and 
shape and degree, it must be to him indeed an infinite 
misfortune, for he ever sought such companionship on 
earth, and was never happy in any other. Beside, such 
a catastrophe would involve him in eternal war, for if 
doomed to the society of the vile, the profoundly selfish, 
extortioners, unjust, unmerciful, impure, and brutal, he 
will make trouble among them, unless his spirit has 
greatly changed since it left the earth, for such had 
never any peace or quiet here, in his neighborhood. 



CHAPTER XV. 

-THERE WERE GIANTS IN THOSE DAYS.'' 

L. M. Sargent — Personal peculiarities — The Temperance Tales — A 
Damascus blade well employed — ♦' Deacon Giles' Distillery " — 
Providential and grand results — Father Taylor — Word painting 
— Eloquence. 

Another of our champions, whose influence was even 
more extended than that of John Pierpont, was Lucius 
M. Sargent, Esq., author of the " Temperance Tales." 
The history of the reform in New England, could 
scarcely be rendered intelligible to an individual in a 
distant section of the country, without some knowl- 
edge of our three great champions. Subtract from the 
history of the enterprise from the year 1833 to 1843, 
all notice of the labors of either of those men, and you 
would leave a sad blank. In the retrospect I see not 
how either could have been spared. 

Mr. Sargent inherited wealth, received a collegiate 
education, and studied for the legal profession, which, 
however, he never practised, partly because he did not 
need the avails of it, and partly because his literary 
tastes drew his thoughts and diverted his labors into 
other channels. 

Before visiting Boston, in 1838, I had read a number 
of the " Temperance Tales," had dropped tears on the 

(2143 




L M. SARGENT. 



L. M. SARGENT. 215 

pages of " John Hodges, the Blacksmith," and " Fritz 
Hazel," and had laughed my sides sore over " Groggery 
Harbor," and I exulted in the prospective influence of 
those splendid contributions to the literature , of the 
infant enterprise. During the year 1838 I saw the 
author for the first time in the Odeon at Boston, in the 
convention where was formed the " Massachusetts Tem- 
perance Union." His physique was one of the finest I 
ever saw. More than six feet in height by an inch or 
two, straight as an arrow, broad-shouldered, and very 
muscular. A glance at that peculiar form would readily 
enable one to believe the story of his tossing a fellow 
who insulted him over the high iron fence which sur- 
rounds Boston Common. Temperance men who made 
themselves at all prominent, had to bear very many 
insults from rum-pickled crowds in those days. Most of 
us bore them in silence, and passed on, but L. M. Sar- 
gent was about the last man on earth to do so. Con- 
scious of his great physical power, and exceedingly 
sensitive, he allowed no man to elbow him off the side- 
walk, or insult him with impunity. A stalwart dray- 
man, with whiskers like the mane of a buffalo, interfered 
at one time, when Mr. S. was having some sharp words 
with a gentleman on the street. 

Mr. Sargent grasped him by his whiskers, and turning 
his face up the street, remarked in a very decided tone, 
but in courteous phrase, " Sir, you were walking in that 
direction when you stopped ; please to walk on." The 
drayman needed no further admonition, but as he moved 
off cast a glance back at the man who had dared to 
grasp, thus rudely, his magnificent whiskers, but a view 
of those mighty shoulders impressed him with the truth 



216 PERSONAL PECULIARITIES. 

of Falstaff's conclusion, that " the better part of valor 
is discretion." Tliough a man of great Idndness of heart, 
and like every true gentlemen most kind and courteous 
to the poorest and humblest of men, he was dignified 
and punctilious in his intercourse with his peers. 
There was a hauteur about him which repelled rudeness. 
No man ever slapped him upon the shoulders, and 
called him a good fellow, or inquired "• how are you my 
hearty ? " Although I enjoyed his personal friendship 
for many years, and esteemed and loved him much, I 
should as soon have thought of taking liberties with a 
locomotive when whirling the " Lightning Express " 
along at the rate of forty miles an hour. Yet his heart 
was as tender as a woman's. His eye moistened in- 
stantly at the sight of real misery, 'and I doubt if any 
man could have retained for an hour any hold on his 
personal esteem, after treating with cruelty, in his 
presence, the smallest creature which serves or is de- 
pendent on man. 

At what precise date he wrote " My Mother's Gold 
Ring," the first of the series of " Temperance Tales," I 
know not, nor is it material. In the Mass. Temperance 
Journal, for Aug. 1837, I find a notice that that excel- 
lent tract had been translated into the German, and 
published by the Hamburg Tract Society. In another 
copy of the Journal for the same year, in advertising a 
new number of the series, the editor or publisher speaks 
of it as the fourteenth number. The series was finally 
extended to nineteen. So it seems the most of them 
were written prior to the close of the year 1837. 

In the way of tales or stories, those of Mr. Sargent 
had a popularity and a circulation more extensive than 



THE TEMPERANCE TALES. 217 

anything of the kind which the reform had yet pro- 
duced. Thousands of men before the year 1840 had 
been converted to the doctrine and practice of absti- 
nence by their perusal — many of them by the perusal of 
a single number of the series. Although the stories, as 
such, are of absorbing interest, drawing the reader 
along from page to page, with a charm almost irresist- 
ible, yet the fact, stated I believe in the preface to one 
of them, should be known by all readers, that they are' 
genuine histories, embellished. 

Knowing the deep interest of Mr. S. in the cause, 
gentlemen visiting Boston from different sections of the 
country would call upon him, and in conversation, 
relate to him the histories of individuals or families, 
whicli had greatly interested them. These histories 
constituted the frame work of those admirable produc- 
tions. As he was one of the most profound scholars in 
the country, and one of its most vigorous writers, with 
an inexhaustible fund of humor, and a power of pathos 
which could melt any really human heart, and consider- 
ing too, the fruitfulness of his theme, and that he was 
quite at leisure, and able, therefore, to bestow on their 
production any amount of labor he desired, we ought to 
have expected great excellence in the work, and indeed 
we have it. 

The prefaces of the series, being as it were, so many 
essays on different phases of the temperance question, 
would of themselves constitute one of the most instruct- 
ive little volumes wliich could be placed in the hands of 
an individual who had become already somewhat inter- 
ested in the subject, and desired more light and knowl* 

edse in relation to it, 
10 



218 A DAMASCUS BLADE WELL EMPLOYED. 

If bj a blow from some powerful fiend, visible or 
otherwise, all opposition to the liquor system could be 
annihilated, and with it all the temperance men and 
women now living, with all the publications and instru- 
mentalities of whatever sort, with which we have ever 
assailed that system, — saving only from the general 
wreck " Lyman Beecher's Six Sermons on Intemper- 
ance," " Sargent's Temperance Tales," and the poem of 
Wm. H. Burleigh, entitled the " The Rum Fiend," they 
alone, ought, among any civilized people who can read, 
to originate another temperance reform, and to give it a 
glorious forward impetus. 

The composition of the Temperance Tales, though a 
work of immense service to the cause, was, by no means, 
the only aid afforded it by Mr. Sargent. His pen was 
constantly employed for years, in exposing the vile and 
destructive character of the liquor traffic, and the folly 
and wickedness of licensing it ; in arguing by tongue 
and pen the simplicity, economy, and efficiency of our 
system of warfare upon it, through our organizations 
pledged to abstinence, the education of the popular 
mind, and, when we should be prepared for it, the 
legal suppression of the traffic. Leaving to less able 
and less favored brethren the defense of the cause against 
ordinary assaults, he reserved his fire for its most dan- 
gerous and powerful assailants. When a distinguished 
divine ventured to assail the doctrine of total abstinence, 
as "fanatical, unscriptural, and absurd," it required but 
a few articles from the pen of Sargent to settle the ques- 
tion with him. When Bishop Hopkins of Vermont at- 
tacked our doctrines and measures, Sargent impaled him 
on his quill in a way that has saved us from any furthei 



DISTILLERY. 219 

attacks from so exalted a dignitary of the Church. No 
other Bishop has since ventured to repeat the absurdity, 
that" the triumph of the Temperance Cause would be the 
triumph of Infidelity." When the passage of the law of 
'38 called to the front the twelve great liquor dealers 
of Boston, with Daniel L. Gibbens at their head, with 
their address to the people, the pen of Sargent made 
short work with their address ; and those gentlemen had 
the entire remnant of their useless lives in which to re- 
pent of their folly, which had for ten good rounds made 
them his target. The petition for the repeal of the law 
of 1838, headed by the Hon. Harrison Gray Otis, again 
summoned him to a work of demolition ; for at the con- 
clusion of his critical and masterly review of that plaus- 
ible and dangerous document, the falsity of its state- 
ments and the unsoundness of its logic were made to 
appear so distinctly, that its author, whoever he may 
have been, must have been heartily ashamed of its pro- 
duction. 

At a very advanced age — above eighty — this noble 
champion of our cause died, as he had lived, universally 
respected. 

There was another early and able champion of our 
cause, the influence of whose labors I everywhere met 
in New England, but whose personal acquaintance I was 
not. so fortunate as to make until very recently, the Rev. 
George B. Cheever. The masterly expos^ of the char- 
acter and influence of the liquor business, made by him 
in that famous production, " Deacon Giles' Dist*lllery," 
though it subjected him to attacks both personal and 
legal, and called forth an immense amount of childish 
whining from timid friends and scores of apologies from 



220 DEACON GILES' DISTILLERY. 

the extra-wise and prudent, was notwithstanding one of 
the most masterly, timely, and effective blows oTer in- 
flicted on the liquor system up to the date of ita publi- 
cation, 1835. Mr. Cheever was prosecuted for a libel 
on one Deacon Stone, of Salem, who it was supported sat 
for the portrait of " Deacon Giles," and as the result, 
spent some time in jail. His sufferings there, however, 
could not have been great, for he had the comfort of 
knowing that he had given a blow to a wick'^Ji system 
which was felt; and beside, the ladies of the city, who 
instinctively felt that he had been fighting a battle for 
them, their homes and most precious earVhly interests, 
carpeted his room in jail, and sent day by day choice 
dinners to the royal prisoner, enough to have fed a con- 
siderable company. They stcod by their champion 
through his trial and imprisonment with that devotion 
and untiring perseverance characteristic of true women 
where their intellects and hearts have both become en- 
listed in a good cause and in the defence of its support- 
ers. This attempt to muzzle the press in relation to the 
liquor question came at a fortunate time, and the most 
fortunate circumstance about the whole affair, as we now 
see it in the light of subsequent events, was the partial 
success of the opposition in getting our champion into 
jail. 

The fact was chronicled by the press throughout the 
country, that a learned and popular clergyman of Salem, 
Mass., was in jail for writing a very ingenious and sharp 
article, reflecting on the character and influence of the 
liquor business, especially of its production. Intense 
curiosity was at once excited in the public mind to see 
the production which had occasioned such an outburst 



DEACON GILES' DISTILLERY. 221 

of rum-wratli, and the demand was urgent on the con- 
ductors of public journals that they would give "Deacon 
Giles' Distillery" a place in their columns. Thus it got 
a very general publication, and the important truths em- 
bodied in that splendid production fouud their way to 
the minds of thousands who would never have seen the 
article but for the trial and imprisonment of its author. 
Thus it was in the days of Paul. The enemies of the 
new religion thought to hinder its progress by silencing, 
if possible, its most learned and eloquent advocate, and 
so violently did they pursue him that his life was in dan- 
ger. Feeling assured that he could not have a fair trial 
among those who had crucified the faultless Master, he 
appealed unto C^sar, and his exasperated enemies were 
compelled to send him to Rome. The authorities there, 
feeling little interest in mere questions of Jewish law, 
and profoundly impressed with the noble bearing and 
eloquence of that Christian hero, set him at liberty, and 
the first use he made of it was to preach Christ the 
Saviour of men to those around him, including the high- 
est officers of the government. Hence the remark of a 
pious old divine, that the Devil and his special friends 
had, through the overruling Providence of God, been 
made the instruments of sending the first missionary to 
the heathen, and that too, at a time when the infant 
church was too weak in numbers and in wealth to have 
done so. 

My readers who may be curious to see the admirable 
article which, made so much stir in 1835, will find it at 
the Rooms of the National Temperance Society and 
Publication House, in New York. 

Another gentleman of the clerical profession who ex- 



222 FATHER TAYLOR. 

erted considerable influence in favor of the cause during 
the second decade in its history, reckoning from its ori- 
gin in 1826, was the Rev. E. T. Taylor, of Boston, the 
very celebrated seaman's preacher. During the period 
named, his vc^fce was heard in nearly all the cities and 
larger towns of New England, in favor of the reform. 
A regard for strict truth, however, compels me to add, 
that his views of the subject were greatly modified by 
surrounding circumstances, and that the general knowl- 
edge of that fact seriously impaired his influence. He 
was a man of impulse, and the state of the weather — 
of his health — the character and conduct of his audience 
or any circumstance that impressed him strongly at the 
time, determined the character of his utterances to a sur- 
prising extent. I have heard at times bursts of eloquence 
from him that produced with me, and I presume with 
all present, an absolute forgetfulness, for the moment, 
of all else on this planet or elsewhere, except the matter 
he was just then presenting ; and I have heard him at 
other times, when I have been perfectly amazed at the 
utter inconsistency of the views expressed, not only with 
any standard of doctrine recognized as sound by other 
men, but with his own public utterances of, perhaps, the 
week previous. His imagination once fairly excited 
could furnish in thirty minutes material for half a dozen 
speeches of an hour's length each ; and unfortunately, 
it frequently happened that diflerent parts of the same 
speech could I5e used on opposite sides of the same ques- 
tion. He was, however, a man of honest purposes and 
strong and warm aifections, as well as of varying moods. 
He drew large audiences, whatever subject he proposed 
to discuss, for all men loved to hear '' Father Taylor." 




Rev. EDWARD T. TAYL.OR. 



WORD PAINTING. 223 

If he happened to be right, you rejoiced in the good 
he was doing ; if wrong, you were still charmed by the 
originality of his style, and the vivid word pictures of 
men and things, which in one of his best efforts followed 
each other in as rapid succession as do the varying 
scenes thrown on the canvass by a magic lantern when 
manipulated by skillful hands. 

I have a very distinct recollection of his speech at a 
temperance soiree, gotten up by the ladies of Oharlestown, 
Massachusetts, in the year 1843, if I rightly remember. 
All matters connected with it had been happily arranged, 
and " Father Taylor" was in one of his best moods. 
After presenting to the assembled throng some startling 
views of the terrible system on which the ladies were 
then waging a pretty vigorous war, he closed by one 
qf those bursts of eloquence which it would seem impos- 
sible to forget. Scores, perhaps hundreds now living in 
sight of the granite shaft will remember the occasion, 
and if they shall peruse these pages will bear witness to 
the accuracy of the report I am about to make of his 
vrords after the lapse of almost thirty years. 

" And here it is yet, t^e accursed system to plague 
and torture us, although we have exposed its villainies 
until it would seem that Satan himself ought to be 
ashamed to have any connection with it — I am not sure 
but he is — but some of his servants have more brass 
and less shame than their master. Yes ! here it is yet, 
and over there, too, in the great city — the Athens of 
America, where the church spires as they point upward, 
are almost as thick as the masts of the shipping along 
the wharves — all the machinery ot the drunkard-making, 
soul -destroying business is in perfect running order from 



224 ELOQUENCE. 

the low grog holes on the dock — kept open to ruin my 
poor sailor boys — to the great black establishments in 
Still House square, which are pouring out tlie elements 
of death, even on God's Holy Hay, and sending up a 
smoke as from the pit forever and ever ! 

"And your wives and daughters, even as they walk to 
their churches on Sunday, brush the very skirts of their 
silk dresses against the mouths of open grog shops that 
gape by the way. And your poor-houses are full, and 
your courts and prisons are filled with the victims of 
this infernal rum traffic, and your homes are full of sor- 
row, and the hearts of your wives and mothers ; and 
yet, the system is tolerated. Yes ! and when we ask 
some men what is to be done about it, they tell you, you 
can't stop it ! No, you canH stop it ! and yet, (darting 
across the platform and pointing in the direction of the 
monument, he exclaimed in a voice that pierced one's 
ears like the blare of a trumpet,) there's Bunker Hill 1 
and you say you can't stop it — and up yonder is Lexing- 
ton, and Concord, where your fathers fought for the 
ridit, and bled, and died — and you look on those monu- 
ments and boist of the hei;oism of your fathers, and 
then tell us we must submit to be taxed and tortured by 
this rum business, and we can't stop it ! No ! and yet, 
(drawing himself up to his full height and expanding 
his naturally broad chest as though the words he would 
utter had blocked up the usual avenues of speech and 
were about to force their way out by an explosion, he 
exclaimed in a sort of whispered scream,) Your Fathers 
— jowY patriotic Fathers — could make a cup of tea for 
his Britannic Majesty out of a whole cargo — and you 
can't cork up a gin-jug ! Ha ! " ^ 



ELOQUENCE. 225 

And such was " Father Taylor." His name and fame 
had reached distant states and cities, and distinguished 
scholars and statesmen would, when in Boston on the 
Sabbath, find their way to the Mariner's Chapel to 
listen to the man of the sea, who got his diploma before 
ihe mast ; whose theology was about as variable as the 
winds and the weather, and yet whose earnestness and 
native eloquence had power to captivate and hold in 
rapt attention, often for a full hour, the most gifted and 
highly cultivated in the land, while bringing tears to the 
eyes of bronzed and hard men, as he cheered the de- 
sponding, startled the thoughtless and indilTerent, and 
awakened in the breasts of many of the charmed circle 
before him, aspirations for a higher and better life. 

Beside these prominent champions of the cause, there 
were many whose names are graven on my memory, not 
only for their steady devotion to the work of reform, but 
also for their great kindness to me personally, while I 
labored in Massachusetts. The brothers Tappan, John, 
and Charles, who lived but to serve God and man, a 
kind of service with which the labor of a life rendered 
both of them familiar. And there, too, was Huntington, 
of Salem, and Cheat, of Essex ; Bartlett, of Concord, and 
his brother in medicine, Boutell, of Fitchburg, and his 
neighbor the indomitable, indefatigable, irrepressible 
Trask, who not only warred on Rum, but his twin-broth- 
er. Tobacco. And there was our great surgeon, Warren, 
famous in his own profession and scarcely less so as an 
early and devoted friend of temperance ; and our good 
Deacon Grant, of Boston, the friend of the poor, the 
friend of all men, even of had men, although no friend 
to their pernicious practices and evil influence. Many 



226 PLEASANT MEMOBIES. 

pages would be required to make simply a catalogue of 
the names of the good men whose memories are still 
fresh and fragrant with me, who stood shoulder to 
shoulder in our ranks during the ten years I served the 
old Bay State. 

It is one of the felicities of a life devoted to some 
grand reform movement, tliat it brings one in contact 
with the best spirits of the time and country, and se- 
cures, even to a plain man like me, ennobling friendships. 
Had I been worldly-wise, stuck to my profession, looked 
out for the " main chance," and turned all my energies 
in that direction, I might, perhaps, have acquired wealth ; 
but I would not exchange the memories of the last forty 
years, devoted to the temperance reform, for a good 
many shares of bank or railroad stocks. Now, I can 
call around me by the aid of memory and a little imagi- 
nation, a host of the good and true, with whom my work 
has made me acquainted. I see them even with closed 
eyes. They come trooping at my call, from all points 
of the compass. I am charmed with their shadowy 
presence, until possessed by the illusion, I am almost 
ready to rise and exclaim, " Mr. President, and Gentle- 
men of the Convention." 

What could a large fortune do for me or mine, should 
my life be protracted to seventy or eighty years ? It 
might fill a splendid home with elegant furniture. But 
a comfortable old-fashioned cushioned chair, with its 
stout legs and strong supporting arms, would minister 
more to the comfort of an old man, than costly furni- 
ture. Wealth could cover the walls of my library with 
elegant pictures, but it could not give me young eyes to 
gaze upon them. It could cover my table with luxuries, 



'true wealth against money. 227 

but simple, plain food is generally better suited to the 
wants of the aged, and with men who have lived as they 
ought, is better relished than costly viands and high- 
seasoned disiies. Wealth could procure me a splendid 
turn-out, like that of Bonner, or some other millionaire, 
but a particularly low-wheeled carriage, with a very 
gentle horse of moderate gate, would give an old man a 
more comfortable airing on a fine morning, than a dash- 
ing team of horses of two-foL-ty pace, and the most 
costly carriage in the world. Had I desisted from re- 
formatory efforts, and been guided by those senseless 
maxims, "Take the world as you find it" — i. e., don't 
trouble yourself about making it any better, but make it 
subserve your selfish purposes — and, " Look out for 
number one," or in plain phrase, bestow no time or 
thought on the welfare or happiness of others, <fec., &c., 
I might have been rich ; but that wealth might have 
spoiled my six boys, who, while their father was at work 
lo promote temperance, grew up to industrious and fru- 
gal habits, and all together never cost me an hour's sor- 
row. Had I acquired wealth, I might have sent my two 
daughters to fashionable boarding-schools, to learn a 
little French and German, a little rhetoric and music, 
and a good deal that young ladies do not learn so often 
at home, ignorance* of which is not only '' bliss," but 
something better — purity. I have never spent a summer 
at Saratoga — could not afford it. I have been there on 
two or three occasions, to attend temperance conven- 
tions, and got away in the first train after their close. 
Was impressed wliile there with the notion that nine 
are injured in health and morals by the fashionable dissi- 
pation of Saratoga, where one is benefited in health by 



228 REGRETS AND TRIALS. 

his sojourn there. To sum up in a word, had I sacrificed 
mj " hobby," as my friends termed it, and devoted my- 
self to my profession, and acquired wealth, that wealth 
could have added nothing to my personal happiness, or 
that of my family, and would now be a miserable pos- 
session, as compared with the memories of a life devoted 
to the reformation, education, and elevation of my fellow- 
men. My only regrets are that I have not done more, 
and done all, better, and that I have very often been un- 
able to get my notions adopted by my fellow-laborers, who, 
though perhaps just as earnest friends of temperance as 
I am or ever was, and very likely better men otherwise, 
had never given a tenth-part of the time to the study 
of tlie subject that I have done. Hence, I have been 
grieved to witness disaster and defeat at times, when I 
know that I could have engineered, and led our forces 
to assured success and victory. 

The sorest trials I have ever experienced in life, ex- 
cept the death of very near and dear friends, has been 
in witnessing a slow progress of a blessed enterprise 
which might by the use of proper means, entirely within 
our reach, have been sent forward with railroad speed ; 
to witness partial defeats where we might have rejoiced 
over glorious victories, and to see the continued exist- 
ence of a destructive system which could have been 
crushed in any one of our states where common schools 
have done their work, within the space of ten years, by 
the hearty, continuous, and well-directed efforts of those 
who have been, during that period, total abstainers from 
all intoxicants. The tax on their time should not have 
been greater than one evening per week, and two or 
three days a year for general meetings or conventions 



A LEADER WANTED. 229 

for consultation and discussion ; not, however, for enter- 
tainment or steamboat excursions. The tax on their 
purses should not have exceeded twenty-live cents per 
month. If it were proper I would risk my head on the 
destruction of the liquor system within the period named, 
by a certain plan of operations, simple, peaceable, and 
not more expensive in time or money than what I have 
stated. My brethren will not adopt it, however, either 
because tliey have some plan of tlieir own to whicli they 
may have devoted forty hours in all, it may be, instead 
of forty years ; or because they will not sit down coolly, 
and in the light of history, of passing events, and right 
reason, consider the subject. They have not time, or 
think they have not, but must go ahead, on some ill-con- 
sidered plan, until mortified, disheartened by successive 
faihu^es, they are often discouraged, and quit the field. 

We have no recognized Yon Moltke in our enterprise, 
though wlierever we have had any decided victories, it 
was because we had, on that particular field, a recognized 
leader. He may have been a modest man, wlio made 
no claims to leadership, but, nevertheless, he led. 

Methodism lives through all mutations, and goes on 
conquering still. Why ? Its communion is not a more 
intelligent or more holy body of Cliristians than some 
others. It works on a plan perfected in the mind of one 
man— John Wesley. The Suspension Bridge which 
spans that awful chasm at Niagara, over which heavy 
railroad trains pass and re-pass with safety, was not 
planned by a committee, but is the product of one mind. 
All successful campaigns in war, from Julius Csesar to 
Moltke, and all great and successful undertakings in all 
human affairs are due, first of all, under the Providence 



230 A LEADER WANTED. 

of God, to a one man power. Disaster, of course, comes 
if tlie wrong man is trusted with leadership ; but when 
the right one comes, things move on to a grand issue, 
if tlie proper tools are but furnished. When Boston 
capitalists would, for manufacturing purposes, throw a 
great dam across the Connecticut river, at Hadley 
Falls, they employed an able engineer. He perfected 
his plan for the work and submitted it to them. They 
thought they could improve it in certain particulars. 
Ilis reply was, " Gentlemen, I, as your servant, will 
carry out any suggestion you may make, and agree 
upon ; but if you thus modify my plan, you must not 
hold me at all responsible if the work does not stand." 
Wealth had ministered to their vanity and self-confi- 
dence, and they did modify it. The work was finished. 
It was an imposing and splendid structure ; but the old 
Connecticut, vexed at this obstruction, got up, not her 
blood, but her waters, and swept it away, and with it the 
self-confidence of the committee. They then told the 
engineer to build a dam on his own plan. He did so ; 
and although that skillful architect has since been con- 
quered by the great enemy, strong drink, and went down 
to an early grave, much lamented, yet that splendid 
work of his still stands, a monument of his skill. He 
proved himself more than a match for Connecticut river, 
but strong drink was more than a match for him, as it 
has been for thousands of others as able and as useful 
men. No committee ever planned a successful campaign 
or led a host to victory. 



CHAPTER XYI. 

Josepli Breck — A glass of Gin — Compare them, Sir — Frightened — 
A laugh all round — A cup of tea — A home question — What do 
yi)U say ? — A new patron — Our best hold^Gough, Gough ! — 
Discussion, its value — The tipsy Son — Afflicted — The old story — 
Converted at a blow — Temperance Conventions, how effected — 
Ruminating — Only to travelers — Travelers on short routes — Pret- 
ty much burned out — The poor old Doctor — Expelled — Why is it ? 
The INIajor — " Take him off" — Threatened — Satisfaction — Recov- 
ered — Trying it again — " Ten cents" — The whole cost. 



Joseph Breck, the author of a work oii flowers, had 
an agricultural and horticultural warehouse and seed 
store but a few rods from old Faneuil Hall. He was 
a fine specimen of a Christian gentleman, with a 
hand for every good work, and so genial and pleasant, 
withal, that he won the hearts of all acquaintances. 
Even bad men, whose vices he reproved, loved him; 
they could not help it. He was, of course, a staunch 
friend of temperance ; and when weary with labor and 
a little below par on the score of energy and resolution, 
I used to run in and see friend Breck. A free and easy 
chat for half an hour with an intelligent, genial, and 
good man like him, is a better stimulant for both body 
and mind, than any bought at the wine stores. So when 
I was below par, I took a dose of Breck, varying the 
prescription, sometimes, to a dose of Whittemore, at the 
"Trumpet" office. 
(231) 



232 A GLASS OF GIN. 

One day I dropped in at friend Breck's, and observed 
a fine old gentleman, gray and venerable, sitting with 
him, and at the desk, in an midertone, I inquired of 
Mr. B. who it was. He replied that it was Mr. Samuel 
Stewart,* formerly a merchant of Boston, who had ac- 
quired a fortune, and was then residing at Dorchester. 
"He is a fine old gentleman," said Breck ; " a great 
lover and patron of Horticulture, but I cannot convert 
him to our notions in reference to temperance. He will 
insist on his glass of gin occasionally. I wish you could 
have a little talk with him on the subject." " I will," 
said I, " if you can bring up the subject for conversa- 
tion." But how was the thing to be done? Easy 
enough, as you will see. 

" Gome here, pup, come here," said the old gentleman 
to Breck's dog, slapping his knee gently the while, to 
show Pompey how delicately he would caress him if he 
would approach in a friendly way. But Pomp kept at a 
respectful distance. '' He is afraid of you, friend Stew- 
art," said Breck, " and I think I can tell you the reason 
why. Dogs have a keen scent, and he has discovered 
that you use gin, and, being a regular teetotaler himself, 
he dare not come near you." 

" Ha, ha, ha ! " roared the grand old man, who seemed 
heartily to enjoy the joke. " Do you think that is it, 
Breck ? " 

" Certainly, certainly!" was the reply. 

Here I interposed, and reproved friend Breck for in- 
sulting a venerable gentleman by insinuating that he 
drank gin. 

* That is not the real name of the gentleman referred to, which 
is suppressed for obvious reasons. 



COMPARE THEM, SIR ! " 



233 



" Well, I do," said lie, " think of it as you will." 

The subject was now fairly up for discussion. My 
venerable opponent brought out in succession the com- 
mon arguments for the use of stimulants, especially for 
old people. I replied to them as presented, treating 
him, meanwhile, with the utmost respect, aiid avoiding 
as far as possible every needless cause of irritation. At 
length the old gentleman discovered that he had a hard 
road to travel, and, losing his temper, began to assail 
the whole host of pledged men as a set of hypocrites, 
who, witli all their professions, drank behind the door. 

" Hold on, sir," said I. '• You are an old man, and 
I comparatively a young one, and in this discussion I 
have endeavored to treat you with that respect which I 
consider ever due to age, and however sharp you may be 
on me, personally, I shall not reply in kind. But I can- 
not allow you to charge all our pledged host with hypoc- 
risy, for we have many men in our ranks as aged and 
quite as respectable every way as yourself. I shall de- 
fend such from your charges, even at the expense of 
your feelings." 

" Well, do as you like," said he, for his blood was up. 
" I have given you my opinion. You are all a set of 
hypocrites. You drink behind the door," &c., &c. 

I, in turn, began to be quite in earnest, and replied : 
" Sir, I thank God I have no cause to be ashamed of 
my associates in the temperance cause, and I am quite 
willing to compare our several parties, as you seem to 
court such a comparison. Look on the two and com- 
pare them, sir. You will see on our side the great mass 
of the active Christian men and women of Massachu- 
setts, all men engaged in good and benevolent enter- 



2S4 FEIGHTENED. 

prises of whatever kind, our clergy, our educators, from 
the college down to our district and our Sabbath schools, 
they are mainly with us. Now, what have you on the 
other side ? True, you have some respectable men, like 
yourself, but go down into the liquor saloons, and into 
the gambling hells and houses of prostitution, where are 
the representatives of every rascally business in the city, 
and they are all with your party, sir. Blear eyed and 
bloated, ragged and reeling, hundreds of them hurrying 
along to their graves, they are all with you. Why, sir, 
Falstaff's ragged regiment, which he swore he would 
not march through Coventry with, were a set of well- 
dressed gentlemen compared with a portion of your rank 
and file." 

He looked at me for a moment in silence, and then 
burst into a roar of laughter at the way I had rattled 
off the facts to him, when he exclaimed ; " Well, well ! 
I don't know who you are ! You are an odd one. You 
talk too fast for me. Yes, yes — too fast for me ! " 

'' You say you don't know this man," said Breck. 
'' W^liy, you ought to know him. He is pretty generally 
known throughout the state, and I'll warrant you have 
heard of him often enough. This, sir, is Doctor Charles 
Jewett, the temperance agent." 

''The devil it is!" said the old gentleman, with a 
look of astonishment and alarm ; and with that he made 
for the door, and hurried into the street, as though es- 
caping from a tiger. My friend Breck leaned forward 
on his desk and roared in a perfect paroxysm of laugh- 
ter, and one of his clerks, unable to stand, and seeing 
nothing else near to sustain him, stretched out on a big 
plough until the convulsion had subsided. The old gen- 



A LAUGH ALL ROUND. 



235 



tleman's notions of Dr. Jewett had been derived from 
prejudiced parties, and he had, doubtless, pictured him 
a perfect monster, a reckless, savage fellow, ready al- 
most to devour an opponent ; and now to learn, thus 
suddenly, that he had been for a full half-hour within 
reach of that terrible animal — it was overwhelming, and 
he got out of that jungle as soon as possible. 

When next the good old man visited Breck, he was, 
of course, rallied on his causeless fright. He was as- 
sured by my friend that I was, on the whole, rather a 
clever fellow, and that on further acquaintance he would 
find me so. For weeks and months, as often as he vis- 
ited the store, (which he seldom failed to do when he 
came to the city,) some allusion would be made to his 
encounter with that terrible temperance fanatic, and a 
good hearty laugh all round would con tribute to the 
present cheer, as well as the health of the parties. 

Some months after this occurrence, I had occasion to 
visit Dorchester. There were in that town, as there 
were in most of the fine suburban towns about Boston, 
certain wealthy gentlemen who annually contributed to 
the funds of the " Temperance Union." I went out to 
call on our patrons for their annual subscription. Among 
other names I found that of Samuel Stewart, and in- 
quired of a man whom I met where that gentleman re- 
sided. "There are two persons of that name in town," 
said he ; " father and son." Here was a source of em- 
barrassment. The gentleman suggested that a knowl- 
edge of my business with Mr. Stewart, if I felt free to 
state it, might indicate which of the men I was in pur- 
suit of. I informed him. "- Ah," said he, " it is the 
young man. You would never get a subscription for the 



236 A CUP OP TEA. 

temperance cause from the old gentleman, for, though 
a very temperate and excellent man, he will have his 
glass of gin, and has strong prejudices against your 
movements." I called at the residence of S. Stewart, 
Jr. He had not retarned from Boston, would be at 
home in about an hour. What was I to do in the mean- 
time ? I thought it possible that there might be some 
mistake about it, and it might be the older Stewart after 
all. At any rate, even should my information be cor- 
rect, it would do no harm to have a little chat with a 
fine old gentleman, if he did drink gin. So I resolved 
to call upon him. 

All this while I had not associated the name with the 
affair in Brock's store. I rang the door-bell of the old 
man's stately mansion, and he himself answered the 
call. The instant I saw his face I recognized him. '' Is 
this Mr. Samuel Stewart?" I inquired. He answered 
in the affirmative. '' This is Dr. Jewett, sir, agent of 
the 'Temperance Union.'" "Ah — yes — well — yes — I 
recollect you, doctor. I met you at my friend Brock's, 
in Boston. Walk in, sir, walk in, I am happy to see 
you." I stated the nature of my business. " Well, 
come, sir, I am about to sit down to my tea," said he ; 
'' I am quite alone, I like company. Throw off your 
coat, sir, and take a cup of tea with me." 

Compliance with such an invitation at the hour of five 
or six, P. M., is the most natural thing in the world for 
me when circumstances will permit. So down we sat 
at the table. Reader, you will err greatly if you imag- 
ine me green enough to enter just then at once on the 
subject of temperance. I have studied men too much 
for that. So, by a reference to his fine fruit yards, I 



A HOME QUESTION. 237 

drew the conyersation to the subject of fruit culture. 
He had paid much attention to it practically. So had 
I, and I had studied the science of the subject, as well, 
and we had a talk which I found was not altogether un- 
interesting or uninstructive to him. 

But the time is passing, and we must draw the con- 
versation somehow to the temperance enterprise, and 
how ? That was the question for the moment. I soon 
fixed on a plan, which will develope itself in the subse- 
quent dialogue. 

^' They tell me, sir, that your town is growing very 
rapidly, that it has nearly doubled its population within 
the last eiglit years." He confirmed the truth of the 
statement. " In connection with that fact I have heard 
a statement which, if it be a fact, also seems very re- 
markable." 

" What is that ?" he inquired. 

" That while you have nearly doubled your population, 
there has been an actual falling off in the amount of 
your pauperism, that you have fewer paupers now than 
when your population was about half its present num- 
ber." 

" Well," said he, " as to that, I had learned that our 
pauperism had been reduced, but I did not know exactly 
to what extent." 

I told him of whom I had my information. 

" Oh, well, then it is so," said he. " He is a reliable 
man, and knows all about that matter." 

^' Well, now, Mr. Stewart, that is a remarkable fact. 
What influence lias been operating among your i^eople to 
produce such a very dedrahle result 9^^ 

There was but one truthful answer to be made to that 



288 WHAT DO YOU SAY? 

question. I well knew that, and it remained to be seen 
if he knew it. If he did knoAV it, and would admit it, 
that admission would involve a pretty severe reflection 
on his own past indifference to the claims of the tem- 
perance cause. 

He saw the trap, and sought to avoid it thus. " Well, 
I suppose you would say that it was the influence of the 
temperance cause in town to which we are indebted for 
this change." 

I would not let him dodge it thus, but immediately 
added, •' Never mind what J would say, I am not a citi- 
zen of the town, and am unacquainted with its history ; 
my opinion would not be worth much in relation to the 
matter ; but, Mr. Stewart, what do you say ? 

" Well," said he, with au honesty which was charac- 
teristic of the man, '' if I must state my opinion, I 
believe that is it." 

I have you now ! thought I, and I was determined to 
push my advantage, kindly, but earnestly. '' If the 
increasing temperance of your people, and the diminu- 
tion of the liquor traffic in town has really reduced your 
pauperism, while you have doubled your population, it 
must, in the meantime, have done great good in other 
directions. It must have improved the condition of 
many families, who, though poor, have never asked aid 
of the town, and it must have contributed greatly to the 
domestic happiness of your people." 

"Undoubtedly, undoubtedly!" said the good old 
man. 

" And still further, sir, it must have contributed to 
the general improvement of the morals and intelligence 
of your people." 



A NEW PATRON. 239 

" Why yes, yes," said he, " it could hardly be other- 
wise." 

" Well, Mr. Stewart," I inquired, " ought not an en- 
terprise which produces such admitted and desirable 
results, to receive the countenance, good wishes, and 
patronage of all good citizens ? " 

" Yes," said he, promptly and decidedly ; and with a 
thoughtful and rather sad expression of countenance, 
he added, " and now that the matter has thus come 
fairly before me, I am inclined to tlie opinion that I 
have not done quite right about that matter heretofore, 
and I think I must make a small donation to your soci- 
ety," and with that he drew his pocket-book, and made 
his first donation to the temperance cause. The amount 
I have forgotten. It was less material than the fact 
that he had now determined to make some amends for 
past neglect. I thanked the kind old man in the name 
of the association I served, and added to the list of our 
patrons the name of Samuel Stewart, Sr. Thanking 
him further for his hospitality, and receiving from him 
an earnest invitation to call on him again whenever I 
should visit the town, I bade him good-day. 

Immediately, I called upon his son. He had just 
returned from the city. I gave him my name, and 
stated my business. 

" Yes, yes," said he, "I acknowledge my obligations 
always to sustain the temperance enterprise. It is a 
cause I shall always support while I am able to aid any. 
Let me see, what was the amount of my contribution 
last year ? I opened to the page, and showed him, and 
as he saw there next his own, the name of his father, 
he started back with a look of surprise, and asked, 



MM 



240 OUR BEST HOLD. 

" When did you get that subscription ? " 

" Within the last hour," I replied. 

He seemed utterly amazed, and added, " I would not 
have believed it possible for any man to have obtained a 
subscription from my father for that object. Thougli 
never an intemperate man, he defends the moderate 
use, and has entertained very strong prejudices against 
temperance societies." 

I told him I was aware of all that, and I recited to 
him the foregoing history of our encounter at Breck's, 
in Boston, and the discussion at his own tea-table. 
When I had concluded the history, he added, '' Well, 
that alone pays me for all my contributions to the tem- 
perance cause." 

I received his annual contributions, "marked " paid," 
against Samuel Stewart, Jr.^ and was soon on my way 
to the city, for the day was spent. 

The foregoing history teaches, I think, that in dis- 
cussing the temperance question, even with .very decided 
opponents, good policy would indicate that it be done 
with courtesy and kindness, and that in such discussion 
the practical working of the enterprise is, to use the 
wrestler's phrase, " our best hold." 

I will record here another incident, which, thougli 
slight in itself, may interest the reader, from its relation, 
to subsequent events, which have interested vast num- 
bers of people on both sides of the Atlantic. 

At the close of a public lecture in the cit}^ of Wor- 
cester, Massachusetts, during the autumn of 1842, I 
remarked that I had learned with great pleasure that 
recent efforts there to advance the cause I had been 
advocating, had been attended with very gratifying sue- 



GOUGH ! GOUGH ! 241 

cess — in the reformation of quite a number who had 
suffered much in years past from intemperate habits — 
and tliat I had further learned that they were not only 
exhibiting to those around them the benefits of the 
change, by sober and well-ordered lives, but had in pub- 
lic meetings borne interesting testimony in relation to 
their new and happy experience. I said it would gratify 
me if some of the new converts would permit me to 
listen to their testimony. The President expressed the 
hope that some of the recently reformed brethren would 
gratify Dr. Jewett and the audience by some remarks. 
Calls immediately came from various parts of the hall, 
for Gough, Gough, Gough ! 

It was a new name to me, but seemed to have become 
quite well known to the people of Worcester. The 
President remarked that, if Mr. Gough was in the hall 
it would undoubtedly gratify all present if he would 
come forward and address the meeting. He did so, and 
I shall never forget the first sentence he uttered on that 
occasion. I had stated in my lecture that it had then 
been more than ten years since I had swallowed a glass 
of distilled liquors — and in alluding to that remark he 
said, 

" Mr. President, and Ladies and Gentlemen, I should 
really like to know exactly how a man feels who has 
not had a giassof liquor in his stomach for ten years," 
and with that he went on to describe his experiences of 
the new life he was living, in the practice of abstinence 
from the use of intoxicating liquors. I cannot, of 
course, report his address. It was brief, and admirably 
adapted to the time and surrounding circumstances, and 
delivered in a manner indicating perfect self-possession, 
11 



242 DISCUSSION — ITS VALUE. 

and with a fluency and easy command of language, 
remarkable from one of his age, and who could have 
had but little experience in public speaking. At the 
conclusion of his remarks, I was introduced to him, and 
when, after a few words, he turned away to converse 
with some of the crowd who seemed anxious to speak 
with him, I said to tlie President and others of the 
group near me, " Look well to that young man, for, if I 
mistake not, you will be able to use him to some pur- 
pose, hereafter." Reader, was I mistaken in the opin- 
ion I then and there expressed ? 

It is no part of my plan or purpose, in the preparation 
of this volume, to express opinions of fellow-laborers, 
who are now active in the work of reform, except as 
they were connected with some special movement I may 
have occasion to describe. If my purpose were other- 
wise I might well make Mr. Gough an exception — as he 
is so universally known, and has, through an ample and 
interesting volume, told the story of his eventful life. 

While in the prime of life, and with greater power 
of endurance than I now possess, I was accustomed to 
improve every favorable opportunity to discuss the sub- 
ject of temperance and the liquor system, with indi- 
viduals, as well as before public assemblies, when I 
found a man disposed to defend the use and sale of 
liquors, for thus, and thus only, could I learn how the 
subject was regarded by such men as made up a part of 
every congregation I addressed. I could, not, in public, 
combat successfully the views and arguments of oppo- 
sers, unless I knew exactly what they were. This, I 
could only learn, to my satisfaction, by discussing the 
matter with individuals outside the lecture room. It 



THE TIPSY SON. 243 

mattered not who the man was, or what his position in 
society, a learned judge, or a hod-carrier, a doctor of 
divinity, or a hostler. Men in different walks of life, 
and with different degrees of education, would take 
widely different views of the subject, and I wished to 
learn them all as far as practicable. I shall have occa- 
sion, as I proceed with the history of my labor, and 
that of my cotemporaries, to refer frequently to these 
individual encounters, for some of them furnished rich 
material for reflection. 

I had lectured one evening in Westboro', a fine old 
town in Worcester County, and the following day a 
message reached me, through a professional brother. 
Dr. Rising, that an old gentleman living a short dis- 
tance from the town, wished to see and have a talk with 
me. He sent me word that he had plenty of beef and 
pork on hand, a pretty good supply of rum, and an 
excellent well of water, and he would make me quite 
welcome to a share of his good things if I would call. 
I proposed to the Doctor at once to ride out and see 
him, and together we visited the old man. After a 
fitting introduction by Dr. E,., he began at once to state 
his objections to our doctrines and measures, which I 
answered as well as I could. By the time we had got 
fairly underway, one of the old man's sons came into 
the room, and seemed quite desirous to take part in the 
discussion. The father requested him to be silent, but 
all to no purpose. He had, thus early in the morning, 
drank enough to give liim great confidence in his argu- 
mentative powers. He was determined to be heard, and 
therefore went on with his senseless gibberish, which 
was perfectly disgusting. The old man was overwhelmed 



I 



244 AFFLICTED — THE OLD STORY. 

with confusion, and left the room. I followed him into 
the front yard, and renewed my .talk with him, while 
my friend, the doctor, very kindly managed to keep the 
senseless young man occupied in an argument upon 
"liberty," ''equal rights," &c. 

As I joined the old man in the yard, he remarked 
with a good deal of feeling, " everybody, sir, must have 
their troubles. That boy, sir, that boy, has made me a 
great deal of trouble." 

I inquired if the misconduct of his son had not been 
caused solely by his use of intoxicating drinks. 

" Oh yes," said he, " I suppose it has." 

" Well, then, sir," I asked, " will you not aid us in 
the great work of reform, and help, by your example 
and influence, to banish from the earth an accursed sys- 
tem which has dashed your own cup with such bitter 
dregs ? " 

It was, with the afflicted old man, a moment of hesi- 
tation, of irresolution, and he knew not what to answer. 
Finding that his desire for a discussion of the temper- 
ance question had very suddenly abated, I bade him 
good morning, and with my friend, returned to town. 

One of the most common of all mistakes in relation 
to the public advocacy of temperance, is, the opinion 
that the value of such advocacy may be measured by 
the number of persons converted to the doctrine of ab- 
stinence, or induced then and there to drop all opposition 
to our doctrines and our measures, if indeed, they do 
not sign the pledge of abstinence on the spot. That 
opinion was most prevalent and most frequently uttered 
during the Washingtonian movement, but has prevailed 
with very many at all stages of the enterprise. Of 



CONVERTED AT A BLOW. 



245 



course no thoughtful or reflecting person would entertain 
or express an opinion so utterly at variance with facts 
or common sense. But just here is found one of the most 
serious difficulties we have to contend with. Thousands 
Avho do a good deal of respectable thinking and reason- 
ing on other subjects, will not take time to investigate 
or reason soundly on any matter connected with intem- 
perance, or its opposite virtue, or on the movement 
intended to check the one and promote the other, but 
give utterance to crudities which are discreditable to 
their own intelligence, and mischievous in their influence. 
For more than forty years I have earnestly sought to 
mould others to my opinions in relation to this matter 
of the use of intoxicants, and having possessed rare 
opportunities for observation, I have carefully noted the 
various ways by which men are converted to our views 
and measures. Here and there one is converted by a 
single sound and able argument. Sucli individuals are 
generally fair-minded men, with good intellects, and a 
tolerable education on general subjects, but who had 
been led to entertain false notions on this question by 
the unfortunate concurrence of many misleading influ- 
ences, or, they were able men who had been so immersed 
in other affairs that they had never before heard the. 
subject fairly presented by an individual who had studied 
it thoroughly. ■ Though wrong before in opinion, and it 
may be in practice, yet, being honorable men and lovers 
of the truth, they yield to legitimate influences, and 
from that moment may be relied upon. These however, 
are the few, as compared with the multitude who to-day 
are staunch friends of Temperance, and hearty haters 
of the destructive system we are seeking to overthrow. 



246 TEMPERANCE CONVENTIONS — HOW EFFECTED. 

By far the largest portion of these have been converted 
by tlieir daily observation of the practical working of 
the liquor system, and their natural and just reflections 
thereon ; and all sensible and decent people would be 
thus converted to the doctrine and practice of abstinence, 
were it not for counteracting and misleading influences, 
which I shall not here attempt to describe, or even enu- 
merate, but shall make them the subject of remark in 
some other connection. Among the influences which 
contribute to the gradual, noiseless, but sound conversion 
of the millions of the class last named, should be reck- 
oned also what they casually read in the daily and 
weekly journals of the results of the liquor traffic, in the 
records of brutality and crime, of mobs, street fights, 
&c., and of multitudes of casualities as clearly resulting 
from the imbecility or recklessness induced by drink. 

These millions, scattered all over the land, come into 
our temperance meetings already converted to our views, 
and ready to join us in our efforts for the removal of the 
scourge, if they can do so without violence to their con- 
viction of duty to other interests, or their acquired 
tastes, and if there were practical wisdom enough in 
our ranks to make satisfactory arrangements for their 
reception, tlieir consolidation with our organized forces, 
and the proper employment of their energies, we might 
soon reckon our organized and working force by millions. 
Well Perhaps &c. 

Of those converted to the faith by our operations, by 
far the largest portion, not less I think than nine-tenths, 
are brought to sound views, fixed purposes, and safe 
practices, by often repeated presentations of the truth 
to their minds. One of this class, we will suppose, hears 



RUMINATING. 247 

to-day or this evening a lecture or discussion of the sub- 
ject, and he goes home not converted, but favorably im- 
pressed. If he held false views, their falsity begins to 
be suspected, but is not fully conceded as yet. If he 
entertained ill-founded prejudices, thev have been soft- 
ened. His purpose, heretofore firm and controlling, to 
stand aloof from the temperance efforts of his time and 
neighborhood, has been shaken, but is not yet abandoned. 
Thus he returns to his home. To-morrow the subject 
will come up in his mind for review, while engaged in his 
vocation, unless, as is rarely the case, his calling be one 
which engrosses all his mental powers. He will recon- 
sider the statements made, the argument presented, the 
conclusions arrived at, the practical duties urged, and 
if these were sound, as we should take care they always 
should be, the impression of last evening, instead of 
being effaced or lessened, is, in fact, deepened by his 
own mental operations. Next week, or next month it 
may be, he listens again to an argument, perhaps on 
another phase of the same great subject, and favorable 
impressions gain sti'ength, and thus, in the course of a 
year, by a succession of appeals to his reason, his con- 
science, his interest, his affections, his patriotism, his 
sense of justice, his regard for general morality and good 
order, he is, at length, prepared heartily to join us in 
our warfare on the whole machinery of drunkenness — 
the forging as well as the finishing shops. 

Such being the facts relative to the conversion of the 
masses to our views and practice, do they not afford us 
practical suggestions as to our modes of procedure ? 

Will not our brethren seriously inquire whether our 
present modes of operation are wisely fitted to produce 



248 ONLY TO TRAVELERS. 

the results we aim at? Is the weekly routine of tht^ 
Division or Lodge-room, excellent as they may be, and 
are, for certain purposes, to be at all relied upon for the 
conversion of the masses to our doctrines ? The masses 
in their homes, or in the street, are not directly moved 
by what we do up in the Hall yonder. Binding sheaves, 
and threshing the grain, is very necessary and very hon- 
orable labor, but we must look to other operations to cut 
the grain, and bring it to the threshing-floor. Steamboat 
excursions, oyster suppers, comic songs, or dramatic 
readings may contribute to present enjoyment and 
answer, therefore, useful ends ; but woe — a thousand 
woes to our blessed enterprise, if these are to be mistaken 
for the means of converting the masses, or substituted 
for hard, self-denying, continuous, educational efforts. 

In my public condemnation of the liquor traffic, of all 
the means and appliances of drunkenness, I have been 
accustomed to comment on recent occurrences in the 
immediate vicinity, where they had been of such a 
character as to intensify the hatred of the system con- 
demned, unless, indeed, such comment would be likely 
to wound severely the feelings of parties interested. 
Sometimes such references gave rise to interesting 
discussions, or were productive of results worthy of 
record. 

On the occasion of my first visit to Paxton in Wor- 
cester County, Mass., I learned that the keeper of tlie 
village tavern, who sold intoxicating liquors to all com- 
ers, was a member of a church in a neighboring town. 
I learned also, that in applying sometime previous for 
license, he assured the authorities that he did not wish 
to sell to residents of the town — only to travelers. Cu- 



TRAVELERS ON SHORT ROUTES. 249 

rious to see how a Christian gentleman would deport 
himself as a liquor seller, and to witness this nice discrim- 
ination between travelers and the thirsty of his own 
locality, I decided to spend a portion of the afternoon in 
his bar-room, which I could do without awakening his 
suspicions of my character or object, as I was an entire 
stranger. I assumed, therefore, the heedless, listless 
air of one quite at home there, and dropped in upon him. 
Picking up a paper from the table I seated myself in a 
comfortable armed chair, and gave myself to the read- 
ing of the landlord and his company, while apparently 
interested in the contents of the paper. A careless 
question or two, when a new customer came in, would 
readily determine whether he were a traveler or a resi- 
dent. " How do you find the traveling to-day, sir ?" 
" I have not been on the road, sir, I reside near by." 
" Ah ! excuse me, sir, I did not know but I could learn 
of you the condition of the road, I shall have to travel 
it to morrow." He takes his drink and is off. I mark 
him down in my memorandum, " Traveler on short 
routes, — to the liquor bar of our Christian landlord and 
home again ; no reason to inquire the way ; quite fa- 
miliar with it." Here comes another. Drops into a 
chair to rest him a little before drinking. Suspect he 
may be a traveler bona fide. " Can you tell me what is 
the population of your town here, sir ?" " I cannot, I 
am not a resident." ^' Ah ! excuse me, sir, I did not 
know but you were a citizen of the town." Thus, by 
the answers obtained to my brief questions, I learned 
just how many of the parties were travelers, and not 
less than three=-fourths of those who drank that after- 
noon at the bar, were resident tipplers of Paxton. 



250 " PRETTY MUCH BURNED OUT." 

Late in the afternoon a grey-haired and venerable old 
gentleman, whose countenance and bearing, notwith- 
standing very marked appearances of dissipation, indi- 
cated intellect, education, and familiarity with the better 
class of society, walked in, made his way directly to 
the bar, and called for a drink. The landlord handed 
down a decanter of liquors of which the old man more 
than half filled his glass, and poured it down his throat 
without any mixture. What a draught to pour into the 
stomach of a living man ! Familiar as I am with the 
varied exhibitions of the drink curse, there was some- 
thing in this scene that excited unusual interest, and I 
determined to know more about it. Assuming, there- 
fore, to avoid exciting his suspicions, that coarse and 
reckless style of expression common "among heartless 
men case-hardened hy the constant observance of tvrong 
which they do not care to lessen^ and of so7rows and suf- 
ferings which they never seek to alleviate, I inquired, as 
the old man left the bar-room, " Landlord, what old 
daddy was that?" "That!" he replied, "is doctor 
Harrison." "What! he a doctor? he don't look like 
one." " Well," said he, " notwithstanding his bad looks 
now, he has been one of the most celebrated physicians 
in this part of the country, and has in his time done a 
world of business." I remarked that from present ap- 
pearances he was not likely to bless or trouble the world 
long. " No," said he — " his copper is pretty much burned 
out,^'' 

These were the exact words of that obdurate man. 
Yet he had once had a heart in some measure suscepti- 
ble to the influences of Divine truth.. In other years 
he had listened with interest to the story of Calvary and 



THE POOR OLD DOCTOR. 251 

the Cross. Those lips of his had once pronounced a 
christian vow and covenant, and now — this utterance — 
" His copper is pretty much burned out." It was nov^ 
evident that he understood quite well wdiat effect the 
alcoholic poisons he furnished w^ere producing on the 
old Doctor's stomach, for in that coarse figure he had 
expressed the sad truth. As the continued action of 
the fire without, and the chemical action of the con- 
tents, burn out in time the copper of the still, so he 
knew that the fiery draughts which the old man daily 
swallowed, would soon burn out, or destroy, the vitality 
of the organs with which it came in contact. I prac- 
ticed medicine ten years, and am acquainted with the 
trials, hardships, and overwhelming responsibilities inci- 
dent to that calling, and here was one of my own pro- 
fession who had, during a long life, served the commu- 
nity. Numberless nights had he passed without sleep, 
by the bed-sides of the sick and suffering. Often had 
he faced the driving snow and sleet, and the cutting 
wdnds of our northern winters, riding over the hills of 
Worcester County, at the call of the sick or their 
startled and anxious friends. He had grown old and 
grey in the service, and was now, in the decline of life, 
justly entitled to the enjoyment of ease and competence, 
and of whatever could minister to physical health and 
comfort. Nor. is this all. When the infirmities of age 
come, and vitality is waning ; when the step is feeble 
and the eye is dim ; when the pleasant things of this 
material world yield less than their former pleasure to 
the enfeebled nerves ; then an old man of education and 
feeling, if he has been a faithful servant of the public, 
has claims on that public for something quite as needful 



252 EXPELLED. 

to his comfort as his books, staff, and easy chair, or the 
appropriate diet of age, his bread, milk, and fruit. — The 
generous appreciation of his past services hy the commu- 
nity ivhieh has profited hy them. 

But this good old doctor, connected, as I afterwards 
learned, with some of the best families in that region— 
what had a grateful community for him, now in his 
second childhood ? Fiery Rum by the half tumbler as 
often as a diseased and overmastering appetite impelled 
him to seek it. " His copper is pretty much burned 
out." Reader, I am not a bad tempered man, can bear 
personal abuse mth more calmness than most people. 
Have had the ignorant and brutal shake their clenched 
fists quite too close to my face for convenience or com- 
fort, while addressing to me language ' more emphatic 
than elegant — and I have felt for my wretched assail- 
ants at the time, only a yearning desire to be avenged 
on them, if possible, by doing them good— and yet, I 
must confess that just the remembrance of that heartless 
utterance concerning that feeble, wretched, des]3a'ring 
old man, makes my blood boil again along its cliannels 
almost as when I first heard it. In the lecture of that 
evening I informed my audience where I had spent the 
afternoon, and gave the facts above stated. The storm 
of wrath which was thus kindled around that liquor seller 
never abated until he abandoned the vile business. I 
reported the facts also to the church of which he was a 
member, and he was soon expelled. 

Just here, reader, I wish you to consider a question I 
am about to propound to you, and especially do I wish 
you to consider it thoughtfully, profoundly, if you have 
hitherto had any doubts as to the propriety of licensing 



wHi' IS IT? 253 

the sale of liquors, or preventing their sale where yOu 
may legally suppress it. ' Why is it that men once dis- 
tinguished perhaps for their gentleness and kindliness of 
character, for their ready sympathy with the wronged 
or the suffering, before engaging in the liquor traffic, 
become such brutal and unfeeling wretches after follow- 
ing it for a few years ? That is notoriously the fact. 
The State of New York, on whose territory I write these 
words, could furnish you with ten full regiments of men 
now engaged in the liquor traffic, who are among the 
most heartless and unfeeling wretches which the pa- 
tience of God, and lax human laws permit to walk the 
earth unrestrained. Yet these men, hundreds of them, 
were once kind-hearted, sympathetic, and in early life 
could be counted on for the defence of the wronged, or 
the lifting up of the fallen, as confidently as their as- 
sociates. 

What has wrought the change ? Not merely the pur- 
suit, of gain by traffic. Some of the best men now liv- 
ing have spent their lives in mercantile business. Buy- 
ing and selling the products of the earth, or of human 
skill and labor, does not degrade men. A man may 
weigh out sugar, tea, coffee, and spices, butter, cheese, 
dried fruits, <fec., for half a century, and be all the time 
growing a better man, and a more devoted christian. 
Why may he not advance in excellence while dealing in 
wines, ales, &c,, if it be no wrong to sell them? Con- 
sider that question thoughtfully. The answer you frame 
to it, even in your own mind, may have an influence 
upon your future, and of those around you. 

If the brutalizing process is due to the inherent wick- 
edness, of the traffic and the degrading associations with 



254 THE MAJOR. 

which it must inevitably be connected, then what fol- 
lows ? No man can sustain a system so accursed, even 
by so much patronage as the purchase of a single glass, 
without becoming responsible just so far for its results. 
No man can give his voice and vote for its toleration, 
without becoming, in part,- responsible for the resulting 
crime, and the terrible evils inflicted by that traffic upon 
all the interests of society and man. 

An illustration of the demoralizing tendency of the 
liquor traffic fell under my observation at the town of 
Holden. Major Adipose, I will call him, for he was a 
man immensely oleaginous, kept the village tavern. He 
was selling without license, and was, of course, exposed 
to the penalties of the law in case any body could be 
found courageous enough to complain of and prosecute 
him to conviction. He threatened all sorts of calamities 
to any one who should venture to do this. As an indi- 
cation of wdiat might happen, he used to ride through 
the town in his gig with any number of raw-hides con- 
veniently arranged around him, and dedicated with 
diverse oaths, and great emphasis, to the special benefit 
of any cold water fanatic who might presume to com- 
plain against him. As he was a man of immense pro- 
portions he thought thus to frighten the fanatics and 
continue to violate the laws with impunity. He was 
however prosecuted, and now what was to be done ? 
His prototype, Jack - Falstaff, had declared long ago, 
that '' the better part of valor is discretion." 

The Major was discreet, and instead of inflicting the 
threatened chastisement on the offender himself, he 
engaged his hostler to do it ; and when our small, but 
very energetic brother Damon was passing by one day, 
the said hostler assailed him. Damon did not fancy the 



" TAKE HIM OFF." 255 

titillation of the raw-hide, and grappled with his assail- 
ant, though a man of twice his size. He was, however, 
borne down to the earth by the superior weight and 
muscle of the huge fellow, but as he went down contrived 
to draw up his short legs, and plant his boots in the 
hostler's corporation. Poising him thus, as on a pivot 
above him, he clutched him by the throat with one hand, 
while with the other he snatched the whip dexterously 
from his grasp, and changing it in his hand, so as to 
strike with the butt rather than the small end, he bela- 
bored the face and head of the fellow with sharp and 
cutting blows, still holding him by the throat with the 
other hand. From all quarters men rushed to the aid 
of Damon, but found him really getting along nicely. 
The big hostler, however, was roaring for mercy, " Take 
him off, take him off," while in fact, Damon was flat upon 
his back directly under him. I was assured by parties 
who saw the encounter, that it was really one of the 
most comical, or tragi-comical they ever witnessed, to 
see that great lubber poised on the short, stumpy legs of 
little Damon, held by the throat, and receiving a shower 
of blows on what used to be his upper story, he all the 
while shouting "Take him off, take him off," while him- 
self was in fact uppermost in the scuffle. The parties 
were separated, and Damon went directly to Worcester, 
made a complaint against his assailant, had him arrested 
and tried for the assault. He was fined smartly for 
this wanton attack upon a peaceful citizen. The magis- 
trate, as I heard, remarked after the close of the trial, 
that with the evidence before him, he could do no less 
than fine the fellow, but that when he looked upon his 
bruised, blackened, and swollen face, he almost felt that 
he was inflicting extra judicial punishment. 



256 THREATENED. 

This cowardly assault on Damon before described, in- 
stigated by the liquor dealer, Major Adipose, was but a 
specimen of that gentleman's performances. Another, 
indicating as little regard for decency, as he had before 
shown for law and personal rights, may help the reader 
to understand what I mean by the degrading influence 
of the liquor traffic. 

At the close of an address on temperance in a public 
hall at Holden, by a blind lecturer, a Mr. Palmeter, it 
was proposed to take up a collection for his benefit, or 
that of the society by whom he was employed. The 
President of the Society requested that some gentlemen 
would pass through the congregation and receive the 
collection. Major Adipose, who was sitting in the back 
part of the hall and near the door, arose* and passed his 
hat, into which many dropped their coin, supposing that 
out of pity to an unfortunate man, he was acting in good 
faith. 

After having collected what he could, he left the hall 
for his bar-room, counted out the money, and furnished 
the loafers who had gathered there, with as much rum 
as the money collected would pay for. In my monthly 
report I gave these facts to the public, and as our *' Tem- 
perance Journal" had there an immense circulation, the 
Major found himself famous, or infamous very suddenly. 
He vowed vengeance on Dr. Jewett. He would " pound 
him to a jelly if he could put an eye upon him." " Let 
him visit this region again at his peril," &c. 

An opportunity to put his awful threats into execution 
soon arrived. I had an appointment at West Boylston, 
and the Major came over. 

" Gathering his brows Uke gathering storm, 
Nursing his wrath to keep it warm." 



"SATISFACTION." 257 

He came up to me as I came out of the cliurch wlicre 
I bad just addressed the Sabbath School, and asked, "Is 
tliis Dr. Jewett ?" I answered that it was. " I wish to 
see you in private, sir," he added. " Walk down to the 
liouse with mo, sir," I replied, " and your request shall 
be granted." I suspected that it was the Major, though 
I had never seen him. As I passed into the house of 
my entertainer, I inquired if we could have the use of a 
private room. "Certainly, use this room," said the lady 
of the house, as we passed into the sitting-room, "you 
shall not be disturbed." So soon as we were alone I 
set a chair for this " huge hill of flesh" and bade him 
be seated. We talked the matter over. I declined dis- 
tinctly to retract a single word of the statement, and 
without devouring me, or pounding me to a jelly, as he 
had threatened, he departed, muttering something about 
" satisfaction." " Well, Major," inquired his neighbors 
on his return, " did you horsewhip the Dr. as you prom- 
ised ?" " No, but I would, if he had not backed down 
on his statements ;" and this shameless liar, and cow- 
ardly poltroon sought to make his townsmen believe that 
he had frightened me into an acknowledgment of my 
errors. I gave such an account of his visit in my next 
monthly report, as brought upon him the ridicule even 
of his own customers. I have occasionally found it 
necessary to make a thorough expose of such fellows to 
destroy their influence for mischief by making them 
the laughing stock even of the tippling crowds of whom , 
they have long been the oracles and leaders. 

Within the space of three years from the time the 
Washingtonian movement began to be influential, there 
was started in every city of Massachusetts, a weekly 



258 DANIEL KIMBALL. 

journal in the interest of that movement. In but few 
instances were their publishers able to prolong their ex- 
istence more than a year or two at farthest, and in the 
case of some of them a longer lease of life would have 
been a calamity, for although they all advocated absti- 
nence from the use of intoxicating liquors, yet so much 
false doctrine found place in their columns that their 
influence, on the whole, was injurious, and among inteL 
ligent and judicious friends of the cause the mourners 
were few when their existence terminated. A few of 
the number were well conducted, and rendered essential 
service to the cause. Among these was a paper pub- 
lished in Lowell, and edited by Daniel Kimball, Esq. 
He was the son of a much respected clergyman, and 
had enjoyed the advantages of a good education, but 
habits of intemperance blighted for years the hopes 
of his friends concerning him. The usual history of the 
intemperate was his, except that he never fell into other 
vices. He had been religiously educated, and the influ- 
ence of that christian home and its inmates went with 
him whithersoever he wandered. For a time he fol- 
lowed the seas, but on distant oceans, in his lonely 
watch on deck, parental solicitude and love seemed still 
to whisper their warnings and entreaties in his ears, and 
like ten thousand other wayward boys estranged from 
home and its sweet and saving influences by the wine- 
cup and its usual concomitants, he repeatedly resolved 
on a thorough reformation. These good resolves were 
broken as oft as made, until, with the blessing of God, 
the influence of one lovely christian woman, judiciously 
exerted, was instrumental in saving him. , That influ- 
ence is delicately alluded to in the following extract 



RECOVERED. 259 

from a leading editorial of his paper on the occasion of 
its removal to Boston. " We beheld ' friend after friend 
depart.' We felt the curses of hate and the hisses of 
scorn which the unfeeling and heartless poured upon 
our head, and year after year we sunk deeper and deeper 
into the abyss of intemperance — without hope — without 
God — driven onward like a dismantled ship before the 
gale, in momentary expectation of being dashed upon 
the shores of an unknown world, and ushered into the 
presence of the Mighty God — a poor abandoned, lost 
inebriate. Just then, even while we heard the roar of 
the waters as they rolled upon that dark and stormy 
coast, an Angel's voice fell upon our ear, an Angel's 
hand was outstretched to save us. Allured by the sweet- 
ness of that voice and the gentle pressure of that hand, 
we retraced our steps and became from that hour, a sober 
man — a happy man, and consecrated our time, our tal- 
ents — the powers of body and of soul — all — all that 
makes us man, to the promotion of the cause of total 
abstinence. From that to the present hour, we have 
labored in the cause according to our ability." 

I have thus introduced Mr. Kimball to my readers, 
not only because his character and influence in connec- 
tion with the cause entitle him to notice, but because 
the paper he conducted, which on its removal to Boston 
took the name of the " Temperance Standard," became 
the organ of the State Temperance Union, and the prin- 
cipal medium of my communications to the public, as 
the old and excellent "Temperance Journal" had been 
discontinued at the close of the year 1844. To aid me 
in recalling the dates and particular history of events 
which transpired during the years 1845, '46, and '47, in 



260 TRYING IT AGAIN. 

connection with the cause in New England, I have had 
frequent occasion to consult the bound file of the " Stand- 
ard" for those years — and have often been hindered in 
my work by the great excellence of Kimball's editorials 
on the various phases of the enterprise which then pre- 
sented themselves, which I found it impracticable to 
pass over without a reperusal. To some future histo- 
rian of the reform, the bound volume of the " Standard" 
would be a treasure. 

The year 1846 was signalized by an abortive attempt 
on the part of the opposition to establish and maintain 
in Massachusetts, a paper in the advocacy of their views. 
Two or three attempts had been made before to employ 
the press for the support of the waning liquor system, 
but they had been notable failures. It was resolved to 
try tlie experiment again, for by the election of temper- 
ance men as County Commissioners, the licensed traffic 
ceased to exist in all the counties of the state save two — 
Suffolk, in which was the capital, Boston, and Hampden, 
with its great grog-shop, Springfield, for its shire town. 
Tlius in the counties where licenses were refused, the law 
was in fact practically prohibitory, and as it was enforced 
with considerable vigor, the pressure on the liquor traffic 
was quite severe. Something must be done, therefore, 
to turn the tide if possible, and Dr. Carlos Tewksbury 
started at Concord, in Middlesex County, a paper through 
which to advocate the views and sustain the interests of 
the liquor traders. What measure of encouragement 
he received from their he!id-quarters in Boston, if any, 
I know not. If considerable, their pledges were not 
made good, for only two numbers of the paper were 
issued. 



" TEN CENTS." 261 

To give the wretched concern a show of respectability 
it was christened "The Temperance Review." With 
the intent, I suppose, to stir the blood of the faithful 
and prompt them to heroic deeds in defence of their 
imperiled liberties, the publisher had placed directly 
under the head or title of the paper, the line of Burns : 

" Scots wha ha' with Wallace bled." 

In a brief review of tlie new paper which I sent to the 
" Temperance Standard," I ventured to suggest to the 
editor and publisher a few lines which I judged better 
suited to his purpose than any thing Burns ever wrote, 
although not quite so good poetry as his. 

Sots, wi noses fiery red, 
Sots, whose pockets long ha bled, 
• Who can boast a rum swelled head 

Still contend for Rum ! 

Steam it still by day and night, 
Yield not up that glorious right, 
And with temperance tyrants fight, 

Nerve yourselves wi Rum ! 

• 

The leading article of the paper occupied six mortal 
columns, and its first sentence contained a very impor- 
tant piece of information, as follows : 

" A quart of rum generally sells for ten cents." 
Reader, please observe the care, the prudence, the 
scrupulous regard for truth manifested in the framing 
of that sentence. " A quart of rum sells for ten cents," 
would have been lame. It might have misled the read- 
ers of the " Review," but the " generally " qualifies all 
and renders it perfect. Dr. Tewksbury knew that a 



262 THE WHOLE COST. 

quart of rum sometimes sells for more than ten cents. 
Mixed in the shape of sling and sold by the glass, it would 
bring from respectable tipplers, ten times the sum. By 
the poor drunkard " a quart of rum " has often been pur- 
chased at a still higher price — his hat — his coat — the 
scanty wardrobe o'i his wife — or his children's shoes. 
The first sentence of the first article in the first number 
of the " Temperance Review," though very short, is 
very expressive — full of meaning. " A quart of rum 
generally sells for ten cents." Immediately after this 
sentence follows an interrogatory worthy of serious re- 
flection and a sober answer. It has been repeatedly 
answered by the people of Massachusetts heretofore, and 
will receive an answer within a twelve month that will 
astonish the Doctor. " Now, if one person has a quart 
of rum and another has ten cents, whose business is it 
if they exchange property ?" The beggared wife and 
children of the infatuated drunkard think it their busi- 
ness, and bitterly complain of such exchanges of prop- 
erty. The people of Massachusetts have thought it their 
business for three-fourths of a century, and have under- 
taken to regulate such exchanges of property. They 
have that ''notion" in their head still, and will answer 
the Doctor's question, if I mistake not, by sending the 
selling party where thousands of the purchasers usually 
go. But a truce to this, I shall never get over the first 
page of the Review at this rate. With little comment 
I will add a few extracts from the same article. " Li- 
quors have not an influence on the score of temptation, 
which they have not in common with all created things." 
It will be seen from the following that the Doctor can 
quote Scripture quite to his purpose : 



NONSENSE IN PRINT. 2G3 

" The proper rule which enables us to judge of our 
duty in relation to tempting articles, is this: ' my breth- 
ren count it all joy when ye fall into divers tempta- 
tions.' James i., 2." 

The following statement may surprise some, but we 
assure them it is seriously and unblushingiy made : 

'' We have much direct testimony that the tempta- 
tions that liquors possess is salutary discipline. Tavern- 
keepers' sons, or drunkards' sons are seldom drunkards, 
or even spree-drinkers. The constant exposure to liquor 
destroys its tempting influence, and disciplines effectu- 
ally in the way which they should go." If " the way 
in which they should go" is to vice, disease, and infamy, 
no doubt " the constant exposure to liquors" disciplines 
effectually " in that way." 

Again, we have the following items of truth and 
wisdom. 

" Few fall by over-drinking, and few by each and every 
other sensual indulgence, yet it is clear that protection 
is not the thing needed ; but a help to overcome the 
temptations which are everywhere very properly and 
serviceably strewn in our paths." 

From these quotations the reader will be able to form 
a tolerable idea of the spirit and character of the "Tem- 
perance Review." 

I had long desired that the defenders of the liquor 
traffic would put their views in good fair print, so tliat 
all interested could vStudy them. I fancied there might 
be some advantage to us in having something tangible 
for us to strike at, for it strains a man's muscles severely 
to strike or kick at a shadow. I therefore welcomed the 
new publication, and calculated that I might at least get 



264 THE PATIENT DIES. 

some amusement out of the concern. When the second 
number appeared, it was evident that the editor had 
poured the wealth of his mind into the first number, for 
No. 2 was filled with the most senseless drivel ever put 
in print. It was utterly unworthy of notice, and so I 
waited with patience for No. 3, but no number three ever 
appeared. That was the last attempt to establish an 
avowed organ of the liquor interests in New England, 
and I venture to predict that a long time will elapse 
before the folly will be repeated. 



CHAPTER XYII. 

Incompetent Advocates — Their influence — Our early Advocates — 
District Societies — On time — The Christian way — The Lunch — 
A Good Time — The lesson of it — Visit the Brethren — Rhymes — 
A new Field — How shall we fix it? — Plan of operations — Trouble 
in the Camp. 

During the year 1845, 1 relinquished the agency of the 
Massachusetts Temperance Union. Through the opera- 
tion of causes ah-eady described, it had lost its local 
auxiliaries and a large portion of its income. The full 
import of those facts were not appreciated at the time, 
even by the masses of our most devoted friends. Knowing 
that the society had once been powerful every way, they 
did not doubt but it had still ability to support one agent 
in the field, and hence friends in the localities where I 
lectured did not feel the necessity of efforts to reward my 
labor as they would were I not the agent of a once pow- 
erful society. I became convinced that I could better 
secure an adequate support by independent labor, and 
therefore resigned. 

My judgment did not approve the change, so far as 
the interests of the cause were concerned, but the claims 
of my family made it necessary. My own observation 
has convinced me thoroughly that those who devote 
themselves to the public advocacy of temperance should 
go forth under the sanction of some well-known and 
12 C2653 



266 INCOMPETENT ADVOCATES — THEIR INFLUEMCE. 

reliable organization, and be able to show their creden- 
tials, if required. This may not be necessary in the 
case of individuals who have long labored in the cause, 
and whose relations to it have come to be well under- 
stood, but no harm can come to the enterprize or the 
public by having the labor of even such men performed 
under the sanction of some reliable National, State, or 
County organization. The cause has suffered immensely 
from the unworthy character of very many who have 
been engaged in its advocacy. Thousands and tens of 
thousands of influential men in every state north of the 
Ohio river, (I speak not of the South, for I am not ac- 
quainted with facts that will warrant it,) who are not as 
yet converts to the doctrine and practice of abstinence 
but who are kindly disposed to the temperance enter- 
prize, have ceased to attend temperance gatherings alto- 
gether, as a consequence of having been so frequently 
and thoroughly disgusted with the character of the dis- 
courses they have listened to. This ought not so to be, 
but it cannot be otherwise, until our local societies of 
every form are more careful in relation to the character 
and qualifications of those whom they introduce to the 
public. I am fully aware of the difficulties in the case, 
of the pertinacity with which some mercenary characters 
press their services upon our local societies ; of the de- 
ception practiced on them through the employment of 
circulars filled with complimentary notices, of the origin 
of which there is small occasion to doubt ; and I am 
aware of the extensive demand for more competent lec- 
turers. Still, it is far better that local societies, who for 
any cause are unable to command the services of a com- 
petent advocate, should be content with such services as 



OUR EARLY ADVOCATES. 267 

they can extemporize or secure among their own people, 
tlian run the risk of introducing to a public meeting 
men whom they know nothing of, and whose senseless 
twaddle will, perhaps, cause the earnest friends of tem- 
perance to wish he had opened his mouth in China or 
the Fejee Islands, rather than in their hearing, and as 
an advocate of a great and holy cause. Men who are 
accustomed to listen to able public speakers, in the 
church, the lyceum-hall, the courts of justice, and at 
political gatherings, will not be converted to our views 
by a succession of mirth-provoking anecdotes — illustrat- 
ing nothing but the speaker's folly and uttor unfitness 
to grapple with a great question having intimate rela- 
tions with all the interests and hopes of men. AVith 
the masses of men enterprises are judged by the char- 
acter of their advocates. It is vain to argue that they 
ought not to be. They are ; and in the conduct of a 
great reform movement, wisdom would dictate that its 
friends should adapt their measures, not to some imagi- 
nary state of things, but to the actual. There were no 
grounds of complaint in regard to the character and 
qualifications of those who went forth as temperance ad- 
vocates in New England prior to the year 1840. Rev. 
Doctors Edwards and Hewett, Jonathan Kitteredge,Esq., 
Daniel Frost, Esq., Rev. Messrs. Hildreth, Coleman, and 
Cobb, all educated and able men, and they commanded 
the respect even of those whom they failed to convince 
of tlie soundness of their doctrine or the safety and 
policy of the practice they recommended. With those 
who acted as agents of the cause in the Middle, Western, 
and Southern States, I had no opportunity of becoming 
acquainted, with the exception of Rev. T. P. Hunt, of 



268 DISTRICT SOCIETIES. 

whom I have in a former chapter expressed a very de- 
cided opinion. 

While serving the people of Massachusetts I became 
acquainted with a system of operations to advance the 
cause carried on at that time mainly, if not entirely, in 
Worcester County, which from its common-sense char- 
acter and excellent results, deserves special attention. 
Since I resigned my agency in 1845, the system has 
been extended to other counties, mainly through the in- 
strumentality of Rev. Edwin Thompson, an indefatigable 
and devoted servant of the cause, who through all 
changes and by all possible or conceivable modes of ope- 
ration which commended themselves to his judgment, 
acquired tastes and habits of thought, has served the 
state and people of Massachusetts for a quarter of a 
century at least, and whose devotion to the cause was 
never questioned, even by those who differed with him 
widely as to modes of proceeding. I have never become 
acquainted with any system of county operations, or 
those embracing so large portions of territory, which I 
regard as equal in value and effectiveness as that I 
am about to describe ; and if the account of it Avhich 
I may here give shall lead to the formation of similar 
organizations in other sections of our country, my pur- 
pose will be accomplished and the cause of temperance 
surely advanced. 

A pledge of abstinence from the manufacture, sale, 
and use of all intoxicating liquors and of mutual coope- 
ration for the destruction of the entire liquor system, 
with a few simple and common-sense rules for the gov- 
ernment of the society, comprises all its machinery. Its 
meetings are held quarterly, and no lover of temperance 



ON TIME. 269 

could attend one of them without being edified and 
comforted. 

At each of these " District Temperance Meetings," 
(for so they are called,) the place for holding the next 
is fixed, and the future lecturer or essayist is announced. 
The hour of meeting is 10 A. M., and everybody is 
invited to attend and bring his family and neighbors. 
Go early that you may see the show to advantage. You 
will find, on reaching the place a committee in waiting 
to receive and make you welcome. If you have ridden 
a long way, and purpose to return home after the close 
of the exercises and would have your horse fed, make 
known your wishes to the committee and the matter will 
be attended to. If you have reached the place some 
fifteen minutes before 10 o'clock, you will presently see 
lines of carriages approaching you on the several roads 
that centre at the village, and you will be likely to say, 
^' How admirably they must have timed their starting." 
Why should they not? They are sensible, sober people, 
and can not only guess, but reckon. Every adult who 
will gather here to-day had in youth the benefit of our 
common schools — not select schools, or parochial schools 
— but the blessed common schools. 

That line of carriages came from 11 , a distance 

of ten miles. They knew that an easy drive of two 
hours would bring them here without injury to their 
horses, and so they started at 8 o'clock precisely. That 
was the hour. They all understood it and were on hand 
at the spot designated, at the time fixed, for it had been 
arranged that they should drive to the meeting in com- 
pany. There is no feature about those District Meetings 
more noticeable than the nice regard of all parties to 
the rare virtue of punctuality. 



270 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

Here they come ! and as the carriages successively 
reach the door, and their occupants "jump out," you 
observe that some of them contained each a whole family. 
Yes, that is the true idea. Father and mother, sons 
and daughters, and if there was likely to be still a spare 
seat, word was sent, last evening, to the neighbor who 
owns no carriage, that " Susan can ride over to the 
meeting with our folks to-morrow just as well as not." 
That is the Christian way to do things. Would Paul 
have rode to meeting with an empty seat in his carriage 
if he had possessed one, while pooier neighbors wished 
to go, but could not for want of conveyance ? I doubt 
it. I am sure I would not, and I reckon myself not 
half as good as Paul. T^^e favor of a ride to meeting 
in a nice cushioned carriage would be, to many a poor 
boy or girl, a more promising means of grace with the 
gift of 07ie tract, than a dozen tracts without the ride. 
Reader, will you think of that ? But the carriages are 
empty and the church is full. 

At these meetings I have often seen the church well 
filled during the first hour. The meeting is called to 
order, prayer is offered, and committees immediately 
appointed to fix the place for the next meeting, and to 
report during the session a speaker or essayist for the 
same. The next business in order is usually reports of 
the state of the cause in the several towns embraced in 
the society. 

" Will some friend report the state of the cause in the 

town of H ," asks the President, and Mr. E. D. 

responds. Next we get a report from F , and so on 

through the list. At precisely 12 the meeting is ad- 
journed to half-past one— sometimes for even a shorter 



THE LUNCH. 271 

period. A dinner has been prepared by the ladies of the 
town, and is now ready in the vestry, town-hall, or other 
building conveniently near, and all are invited. 

The bounty of the Heavenly Father is suitably acknowl- 
edged at table, and his blessing sought, after which all 
'•'fair to" witli an appetite sharpened by the morning's 
ride. No ostentatious parade of regular courses, and 
dishes with unpronounceable names is here, but a sub- 
stantial lunch, which, seasoned with cheerful conversa- 
tion, and sometimes with mirth-provoking pleasantries, 
is heartily enjoyed by a happy company.- Many of these 
friends have not met since the last quarterly, and may 
not meet again until the return of a similar occasion 
three months hence, for the people of Massachusetts are 
a very busy people. They rise earlier, work later, and 
move more rapidly, and in fact turn off more work than 
any other people I have ever met with ; and that is 
equally true of operatives in the house, the work-shop, 
and the field. No easy, amiable laggard can keep step 
with those around him in the old Bay State, or be held, 
there, in high estimation. 

But the lunch has been attended to, and a few strokes 
of the bell inform us that the moment for reassembling 
has come. • 

The committees ^pointed in the morning now report. 
The place for the next meeting is announced, and the 
name of the individual who is to deliver the address, or 
read an essay then and there, is announced, and now it 
is two o'clock. 

The lecture for this occasion, which its author has had 
three full months in which to prepare, is next in order, 
and is listened to with profound and critical attention, 



272 A GOOD TIME. 

and at its conclusion its doctrines and practical sugges- 
tions are made for a brief period, subjects of discussion. 
Any unfinished business is now attended to ; an appro- 
priate song, perhaps written for this special occasion, is 
now sung ; a concluding prayer is offered, and the Chris- 
tian doxology gives fitting close to the exercises. It 
has been a pleasant occasion. No needless formalities 
have occupied one moment's time. 

The great question of the continuance or removal of 
the scourge, burden, and curse of intemperance has been 
brought fairly before tlie minds of all present, in its 
causes, influences, and results, and so have the needful 
measures for its extirpation. Friends from each town 
have learned the condition of things in every other town 
within the limits of the society, and when in the trans- 
action of business the friends in town A shall visit town 
B, they will have a sharp look out for violations of the 
prohibitory law, and if reliable evidence of such viola- 
tion is obtained, they will communicate the facts to their 
brethren in B, and the violator of law will be visited 
with its penalties. Another excellent feature of the 
meeting has been the attendance of many citizens of the 
town where it was held who have not heretofore taken 
that active part in the work of reform they should have 
done. They have been favorably impressed by the 
orderly and sensible character of the proceedings, and 
their own unfaithfulness has been rebuked in a quiet 
and inoffensive way while they have witnessed the zeal 
and devotion to a good cause of their neighbors and 
those excellent and influential citizens from adjacent 
towns. The social feature of this " quarterly" is by no 
means an unimportant one, though it has not at all hin- 



THE LESSON OF IT. 273 

dered the business of the meeting. There have been 
pleasant greetings among old friends in the lunch-room, 
and the young men and maidens have had a favorable 
opportunity during the intermission for a little agreeable 
chat. New acquaintances have been formed which may 
ripen into lasting friendships perhaps, and invita- 
tions exchanged for future meetings at periods less 
distant than the next quarterly. Best of all, the young 
of both sexes have been instructed in relation to their 
dangers and their duties. Reader, do you think that 
young persons who accompany their parents to such 
gatherings two or three times a year at least, from the 
age say of twelve or fourteen, until they attain their 
majority, will be as likely to become the future victims 
of intemperance, as those who are taken by their parents 
to the Lyceum hall, the opera, and the social party, but 
never to a temperance meeting ? Those quarterly meet- 
ings have been regularly held in different sections of 
Worcester county for more than tliirty years, and I learn 
from the temperance journals of the state that similar 
societies have been established in other counties. 
Whether they have elsewhere become as popular and 
influential as in Worcester county, I am not informed, 
but I see no reason why they should not. Suffolk county, 
on Long Island, has been blessed, I am told, for more 
than twenty years, with an organization of kindred char- 
acter, though that, I believe, embraces the entire county. 
I have been thus particular in the description of this 
mode of operation, that friends of the cause in other 
portions of the country may know exactly how to copy 
one of the most effective methods for advancing the 
cause and giving to it a desirable stability that I have 



274 VISITS THE BRETHREN. 

ever become acquainted with. Where such a system is 
adopted, it does not of course obviate the necessity for 
local temperance societies holding their meetings more 
frequently, and taking measures for the recovery of in- 
temperate individuals, the relief of suffering families, 
and the instruction and pledging of the young, which 
no organization, like the one described, could possibly 
attend to. 

During the first half of the year 1S46, I labored in 
Massachusetts. In the month of August, I attended the 
annual meeting ot the Maine Temperance Union, at 
Augusta, the capital, and had the pleasure there of 
making the acquaintance of many of those excellent 
and sturdy reformers, whose persevering labors, during 
many years, have helped to place the state of Maine in 
the enviable position it now occupies in connection 
with the temperance reform. 

While there, I was invited to read or recite at one of 
the public meetings held during the session of the State 
Union, a poem which I had written for a special occa- 
sion and read in Tremont Temple, and afterwards, on 
the invitation of members of the Massachusetts Legis- 
lature, in the State House, Boston. I complied with 
the request of my brethren at Augusta, and was made 
glad by the assurance of many friends that the exercise 
had added interest to the occasion. 

On my return trip to Boston, by boat, and while 
steaming down the Kennebec, I was pressed to repeat 
the reading of the poem there for the gratification of 
my fellow passengers, and finding it always difficult to 
say no, when assured that I can in any legitimate way 



FUGITIVE PIECES^ IN VERSE. 275 

contribute to tlie enjoyment of those around me, I com- 
plied with the request. 

The poem was of considerable length. Its proper re- 
cital before an audience requiring nearly if not quite 
half an hour. On the score of merit, its entire repub- 
lication, in this connection, would hardly be warranted. 
The following extracts will give the reader a tolerable 
idea of its general character : 

FUGITIVE PIECES IN VERSE. 

***** 
An aged motlier, in her fierce despair, 
Scatters the tresses of her silver hair, 
Frantic, rebels against the biting rod, 
And spurns the comfort of the man of God. 
Would you what caused the desolation kno^w, 
That wearies echo with its voice of woe ? 
'Tis not that j'onder gibbet rears on high 
Its black, grim outline sharp against the sky ; 
'Tis not that on that plank her first-born stands, 
His brother's blood scarce dried upon his hands ; 
The cause lies farther — where that crime was brewed, 
In a shop " licensed for the public good '' ! 
"V^ntiere murder, arson, rape, are brought to pass. 
With hell-broth vended at three cents a glass. 
And thus her hands that childless widow wrings, 
And thus that fratricidal felon swings, 
While the accessory before the fact 
Goes fi-ee, in goods and character intact. 

Look on yon alms-house, where from day to day 
The grave seems cheated of its lawful prey ; 
Mark well those squalid paupers, and declare 
What brought nineteen in twenty of them there. 
Could but the truth upon the canvas glow, 



276 FUGITIVE PIECES IN VERSE. 

The force of fancy could no farther go. 

Ghast Atrophy should gather up his shroud, 

And half-choked Asthma wheeze his wrongs aloud ; 

There pale Consumption by your side should stand, 

And tottering Palsy point with trembling hand ; 

Fierce Frenzy's haggard eye with fury glare, 

While Cholera should poison all the air. 

All these, and more, with Babcl-like acclaims, 

Should cry to God and man their authors' names. 

And thus this scourge holds on its noisome way, 

To sicken, madden, poison, wound, and slay. 

Ay, thus it ever has gone on, and still. 

Till we apply the remedy, it will ; 

Till our New England be with graves o'erspread, 

One vast, continuous city of the dead ; 

And we might build a pyramid of bones 

As high as Cheops', instead of stones. 

O for the potent rod in Moses' hand. 
To bid this plague depart from out our land; 
A plague more pitiless than Egj'pt knew. 
It smites our first-born and our youngest too. 
But why invoke the prophet's wand of power ? 
It lies within our reach this very hour. 
Law, law 's the rod we at this crisis need ; 
The courage, not the strength, we lack, indeed ; 
Our hands command the thong, but hardly dare 
To lay it on. O, cowards that we are ! 
We pause and hesitate, when one more blow 
Might end the contest with our common foe. 



Meanwhile rum-sellers, with exultant voice. 

In their short respite from their doom rejoice ; 

Ply with increasing zeal the work of death. 

Nor pause to let humanity take breath. 

Shout, drunkard-makers, while ye may — your sport 

Is nigh its close ; root, swine ! your time is short, 



FUGITIVE PIECES IN VERSE. 277 

Thougli longer than we hoped, or ye had feared ; 
A few ibrief months shall bring you your reward ; 
And that ye may not chide us for delay, 
We'll count you interest to the reckoning day. 
Your dues shall yet be paid, all at a dash, 
In fines, and costs, and iron window sash. 

How will they sputter, scold, blaspheme, and swear, 
To find themselves accounted what they are ! 
When justice, long outraged, shall ply her thong 
On shoulders which have been unwhipped too long. 
Methinks I hear their voice of wail and woe, 
Falhng on my prophetic ear-drum now. 

" Alack ! alas ! and well-a-day ! in vain did lawyers plead ; 
Our last appeal has surely failed ! there is a God indeed ; 
I've doubted it this many a day, but now, perforce, I see 
There is a Judge who can't be reached with any kind of fee. 

" So many channels stopped, it is a sorry sight to see, 

Through which my rum flowed constant out, and gain flowed in to 

me ; 
Where are the rights our fathers fought for ? and pray tell me where 
Our liberties are fled ! O, this is more than I can bear. 

" Ye sympathizing sextons, and ye undertakers too. 
The ruin that descends on me is most as hard on you ; 
Ye doctors, and ye constables, come join with me and weep; 
^Othello's occupation's gone,' and we may go to sleep. 

" Behind the bar shall I, alas ! no longer cut a swell. 
The ragged drunkard's patron saint, the loafer's oracle ? 
And must I, ere my fortune's made, in my vocation stop ? 
And must I take to honesty ? and must I shut up shop ? 

" Ah, woe is me ! my customers will learn to drop their coin 
And pawn their coats in other shops, in other tills than mine, 



278 FUGITIVE PIECES IN VERSE. 

For bread, or sucli like useless stuff, but never more will see 
One drop of comfort, sucli as they were wont to get from me. 

" And must I go, indeed, to work ? I cannot, cannot do it ; 

I doubt if stern necessity can ever bring me to it. 

Does Satan, whom I've served so long, now leave me in the lurch ? 

At least, I'll be revenged on him — I'll go and join the church. 

" When troubles thronged on every side, we, as a last resort. 
Had turned our eyes, wi;h grief inflamed, up to the Supreme Court. 
But gone, alas ! are all our hopes ; that sun went down at noon ; 
Curse on those judges' judgment, they have blown us to the moon. 

" Well, turn about, since Adam's time, was ever held fair play, 
And 'tis a proverb, old and true, each dog must have his day ; 
And there's one comfort left lor us, as law and gospel true. 
That we've had ours, each dog of us — a pretty long one too. 

" And if hard work should prove too hard for unaccustomed paws, 
And should the law break us, who long were used to break the laws, 
We still can steal ; the sin, and shame, and risk cannot be more. 
In secret theft, than in the work done openly before. 

" My curse, a hot and blasting curse, on every temperance man , 
On Beecher, Edwards, Hawkins, Grant, and all the accursed clan. 
A special curse is richly due that rhyming, ranting Jewett ; 
Powerless himself to work us harm, he urged the rest to do it." 

But rising high above this cry and hue, 
Hark to the shout that rends the concave blue I 
The shout exulting multitudes employ ! 
The shout of millions in triumphant joy ! 
Hear the poor drunkard, ragged, sick, and sore, 
Tlianking his God that grog-shops are no, more. 
And hear that wife express her joy of soul 
That none shall dare henceforth to fill the bowl 
For her poor, thoughtless husband. Far away 
Her night of sorrow flies ; she greets the day. 



FUGITIVE PIECES IN VERSE. 279 

" Thank God," she cries, " my husband turns from sin ; 

He cannot, if he would, offend again. 

My husband's safe ; and now let Mm beware, 

"Who for his feebler neighbor spreads the snare. 

At last the rod for which stern justice calls, 

Not on the tempted, but the tempter falls. 

Too oft, alas ! a sense of grievous wrong 

Drew forth the murmur, " Lord ! how long, how long?" 

I dreamed not then this day of days to see, 

But thought myself forgotten, Lord, of thee. 

I bow me now, repentant, in the dust ; 

Again I give thee back my boundless trust. 

Join with me, mothers all, throughout the land 

Join with me, httle children, hand in hand ! 

Rejoice ! your sufferings at length are o'er ; 

Your grovelling fathers can be brutes no more. 

Our prayers are heard, at our extremest need, 

For Massachusetts now is free indeed." 

Men of the Bay State — yea, and women, too — 

This triumph still remains in store for you ; 

On you humanity and duty call ; 

Up and about it, brethren, one and all. 

Say, shill your own old Massachusetts be * 

Now backward in the cause of liberty ? 

Who struck the first resolved, decisive blow 

Against the bondage of a foreign foe ? 

Who ever foremost stands in war and peace ? 

And shall the strife for independence cease 

Now, when the need is greater than of yore ; 

Now, when a tyrant knocks at every door ; 

Now, when awakened Massachusetts stands, 

And holds the remedy in her own hands ! 

Think of your children ! all that's dear in life, 

Combine to urge you onward to the strife. 

Strike ! for you owe it to your buried great ; 

Strike ! for you owe it to your native state, 



280 A NEW FIELD. 

To rid her soil of this supreme disgrace ; 

You owe it to yourselves, your country, and your race. 

I have always found my visits to Maine enjoyable. 
Even that during which, at a later period, I had the 
honor of contributing personally to the enforcement of 
that glorious statute of Maine, for which I have never 
ceased to thank God and those who framed it, from the 
moment I first read its stern but righteous and equitable 
provisions. Of that I shall have more to write when I 
reach, in this sketch of my labors, those of the year 1851. 
During the autumn I labored for some weeks in New 
Hampshire, and during the month of December made 
another visit to Maine, and delivered public discourses 
in all the cities and many of the principal -towns of the 
state. 

Early in the year 1847, I received a call from the Ex- 
ecutive Board of the New Hampshire State Temperance 
Society to become its Agent. 

The practical working of the plan of operations 
adopted by the Massachusetts State Temperance Union 
in 1840, I have described in a former chapter. Until 
crippled by the Washingtonian movement, its practical 
results had exceeded my anticipations ; but it had been 
crushed by a blunder of its friends in consenting to the 
substitution for its sensible and reliable measures others 
which, from their very nature, could not be enduring 
under any conceivable combination of circumstances. 
This reformatory whirlwind had pretty much spent its 
force before the year 1847, and the order of the Sons of 
Temperance had been introduced. Sixty divisions had 
been organized, with an aggregate membership of 3,757 
members. Friends especially and zealously interested 



HOW SHALL WE FIX IT ? '281 

to increase the membersliip and acid to the inflacncc of 
that order, were greatly encouraged by^vhat they re- 
garded as the rapid growth of this novel organization. 
To me it seemed a very unpromising measure of pro- 
gress to add but 1,378 pledged members per year during 
two years, from 1845, and taking into consideration the 
very strong and pretty general prejudice against close 
organizations existing among that class of our popula- 
tion hitherto most active and zealous in the good work, 
I came to the conclusion that we could never organize 
but a portion of our real strength in that order. As we 
proposed a continued war upon a wicked and destructive 
system, sustained for various reasons by vast numbers 
of men and immense wealth, it seemed to me the dic- 
tate of wisdom to adopt forms less repugnant to so 
large a portion of our friends. But the movement had 
started, and many excellent and zealous friends of the 
cause were in it ; and although it did not in many of its 
features approve itself to my judgment or accord with 
my notions of fitness, as did the simple forms under 
which we had formerly worked so effectively, yet I was 
then, as I have ever since been, reluctant to engage in 
controversy about forms where we were in agreement in 
reference to doctrines, principles, and the great ends to 
be sought. 

The observation of a life extended somewhat beyond 
threescore, has taught me, however, that there is an im- 
mense power for good or evil in forms ^ and if it were 
possible, as it is not, for me to fight over again the bat- 
tles of a life, I should be a more earnest advocate than 
I have been for simplicity and fitness in forms and modes 
of procedure. Cumberous machinery in a work of re- 



282 PLAN OF OPERATIONS. 

form is as much out of place as was Saul's armor on the 
person of David. When grappling in right earnest with 
a giant enemy, oh ! it is distressing to be hindered and 
embarrassed by needless harness, trappings, and tinsel, 
and to have precious time wasted in needless cere- 
monies. 

Possessed, even more strongly in 1847 than I had 
been in 1840, with a belief that we could not carry the 
stout works before us either by surprise or storm, but 
only by systematic warfare and regular approaches ; and 
finding our forces divided in Massachusetts by move- 
ments already described, I had been for some time anx- 
iously looking for some unoccupied field where, with the 
cooperation of good men, I could apply and successfully 
prosecute the plan of operations broken down in Massa- 
chusetts, in the success of which, if faithfully carried 
out, I. then had, and still have, unlimited confidence. 

When, therefore, this call came to labor in New 
Hampshire, I accepted it with alacrity ; there were no 
extensive and systematic temperance operations in the 
state at that time. The multitude of societies existing 
prior to 1840, had either died of financial starvation or 
had given place to Washingtonian societies, and these 
latter had in turn mostly gone to wreck ; and as to the 
order of " Sons of Temperance," it had, to be sure, a 
Grand Division there, grand in principles and aims, but 
not very grand in numbers. It had but six subordinate 
divisions, with an aggregate membership of 227. In 
Portsmouth, 81 ; Nashua, 47 ; Dover, 33 ; New Market, 
21 ; Concord, 45 ; Manchester, numbers not stated. 
These figures are from official records, kindly furnished 



TROUBLE IN THE CAMP. 283 

me by that excellent friend of the cause and faithful 
officer, S. W. Hodges, of Boston. 

The order, it will be observed, was confined, as yet, 
to the cities. Tlie rural districts were without any 
forms of association which would be likely to conflict 
with any general plan of operation the state might adopt. 
All the essential features of the plan adopted in Massa- 
chusetts in 1840, were adopted by the New Hampshire 
State Society. For a detailed description of it, see chap. 
IX, from pages 124 to 130. 

The " Temperance Banner," a monthly paper, was 
started at Concord as the organ of the society, and at- 
tained a circulation, in eight months, of over ten thou- 
sand subscribers. A list of state members had been 
secured, paying to its treasury one dollar each annually, 
sufficient in number to sustain handsomely two agents 
in the field, Thomas D. Bonner, a zealous and effective 
laborer, and myself, and our publications. 

I had hoped by the close of the first year to have 
reached a paying membership of at least three thousand, 
with a circulation of our paper of not less than fifteen 
thousand. I think we should have reached that had our 
measures been carried forward without serious interrup- 
tion. 

Once more I was happy in my work. I saw a %y%te- 
matic movement in which all could engage gaining 
strength and numbers day by day, and destined, as I 
hoped, to accumulate a power that would, at no distant 
date, crush the hated system upon which we were war- 
ring, to the joy of many thousands of suffering ones, 
and to the certain advantage of all the substantial in- 
terests of society. 



284 TROUBLE IN THE CAMP. 

But again our plans were thwarted through the malign 
influence of one member of the Executive Board. He 
had a passion for managing all affairs with which he 
was allowed to have any connection, and it is doubtful 
if any movement or enterprise has ever yet been dis- 
covered having sufficient vitality about it to endure his 
management for six months. 

He was a man of ability, a ready and forcible writer, 
a tolerable speaker — plausible, even while arguing in 
favor of the wildest projects, and often ingenious in his 
efforts to secure the adoption of his measures. He was, 
no doubt, an earnest friend of temperance, but beyond 
personal efforts in favor of the unfortunate victims of 
intemperance, which he has often put forth, with a zeal 
which ought to have shamed many of those around him 
more fortunately constituted, his friendship has never 
been useful to the cause. 

Anticipating only disaster to the State Society and the 
cause from the adoption of measures which he was con- 
stantly planning with an industry very remarkable, I 
opposed the adoption of his plans by the Executive 
Board, for the most part successfully. Naturally enough, 
I became an object of aversion to him. He deliberately 
attempted to destroy my reputation for integrity and 
fidelity to ihe cause, by a system of measures which I 
shall not attempt to characterize or describe. His at- 
tacks upon me were of such a nature as, if not fatal to 
me, would surely.be so to himself. But few words are 
needed to record the result. 

At the next annual meeting, which was held in Man- 
chester, a resolution was passed after a full discussion 
of the subject, expressing unabated confidence in the 



A. MISTAKE. 285 

individual he had assailed, and in the list of officers for 
the year 1848 his name did not appear. His hostility 
and the measures he had planned to destroy my influ- 
ence, had fully developed themselves by the month of 
August, and as there was no provision in the constitu- 
tion by which a member of the Executive Board could 
be removed until the annual meeting in January follow- 
ing, I resigned my agency in September, as I felt that I 
could not without a sacrifice of self-respect continue to 
labor under the direction of a Board of which my as- 
sailant was a member, and for other reasons which will 
become apparent as I proceed in the narration of the 
facts. 

The resignation of my agency was a serious error, 
which I have ever since regretted. I should have re- 
mained at my post and kept rigiit on with my work, but 
I was disheartened by these blows from a professed 
friend, and though conscious of entire rectitude in the 
discharge of my official duties, I was impressed with the 
belief that the attacks upon me had been so persistent, 
and withal made with so much cunning, that they must 
have impaired my influence in the state, and I thought 
it might be better for the society for some other laborer 
to take my place. I was convinced of my mistake at the 
annual m/^eting, but it was then loo late to repair the 
mischief already done by the too hasty resignation of my 
agency. I could not properly record the events of this 
year without reference to this unfortunate affair, but 
have purposely made the narrative as brief as possi- 
ble. I have also withheld the name of my assailant out 
of regard to the feelings of his family, and the added 
fact that with all his errors, and they were many and 
grievous, I believe him to be at heart a real friend to 



286 COL. MILLER. 

the cause of temperance. God forgive the man for the 
wrong he purposed and sought to inflict upon me, and 
the greater wrong in hindering the progress of a blessed 
enterprise, on the success of which hang the hopes of 
suffering thousands. 

A pleasant incident may relieve somewhat the somber 
character of the narrative just given. 

The attacks made on the agent, and the character and 
animus of the attacking party, as well as the manner in 
which both had discharged their official duties, were 
subjects of animated discussion at the annual meeting. 
As the result, the resolution already referred to was 
passed, affirming the unabated confidence of the society 
in the integrity and official faithfulness of their former 
agent, who, though no longer agent," had felt it a duty 
to himself and all concerned, to be present where all 
these matters would be discussed and passed upon by 
the representatives of the cause from all parts of the 
state. 

The dropping of the name of my assailant from the 
Executive Board and the passage of the resolution re- 
ferred to, though a severe condemnation of his past 
course, did not seem to me to be discharging fully the 
duty of the society to itself. I urged a resolution of ex- 
pulsion. Just at this juncture a very queer speech from 
a very eccentric man produced a universal roar of laugh- 
ter, and terminated the discussion of the subject. 

The speaker referred to was one Col. Miller, a long, 
lank, loose jointed, and awkward individual, so comical in 
all his movements that when he rose to speak, the facial 
and intercostal muscles of the hearers at once put tliem- 
selves in condition for a laugh before the man could 
open his huge mouth, the largest, I am sure, I have ever 



A LARGE MOUTH. 287 

seen upon man. "When it was fairly opened one could 
not help speculating a little as to how slight an addition 
to the opening on either side would be needful to render 
the upper portion of the head and face an island. He 
rose to address the assembly, and was requested to come 
forward to the platform. He did so, and turning his 
face for some cause toward the left he began to speak, 
when some one on his right exclaimed, " Will the gen- 
tleman allow those on this side the house to hear some 
portion of his remarks V Instantly he gave a comical 
twist to his huge frame, and with an expression on his 
countenance of blank astonishment, remarked as fol- 
lows : " Why, Mr. President, that is a most extra-or-di- 
nary request. I had supposed that, let me turn my face 
whichever way I might, my mouth would open to any 
part of the house." When the roar which that remark 
excited had ceased, he proceeded thus : " Mr. President, 
I hope that Doctor Jewett will not press his resolution 
for the expulsion of the offending member. I think, sir, 
that this body has sufficiently expressed its opinion of 
that gentleman and his course by action already taken. 
Any thing further would seem to me quite superfluous. 
Why, Doctor," turning his face toward me, " do you 
suppose that those lying crittors, Annanias and Saphira, 
who fell down dead at the feet of the Apostles, would 
have felt any worse after their fall if thunder and light- 
ning had struck 'em?" 

When the laugh which that sally occasioned had sub- 
sided, I rose and withdrew the resolution, the matter 
was dropped, and the attention of the great assembly 
was directed to other matters. 



CHAPTER XYIJI. 

Moving — Guerrilla Warfare — Almost discom^aged — Retreating — 
Arrested and sent to tlie front — One thousand dollars — Getting in- 
to type — Front to Front — We rout them — Comfortable — Visit- 
ing the Prisoners — Sham Democracy — Republicans unsound and 
timid — A glorious opportunity — Political action — They beg off — 
A venal press. 

After leaving New Hampshire, I labored in Connecti- 
cut for a few months, with but indifferent success. Sys- 
tematic effort seemed quite out of the question, and I 
came finally to despair of it, and contented myself, as 
most of our lecturers did, at the time, with independent 
labor at the call of local societies, receiving sometimes 
a stipulated reward, and sometimes just the amount of 
a collection at the close of public services, whether 
much or little. The income from such labor, at that 
time, was, of course, unreliable, and the labor unsatis- 
factory ; for if a good impression had been made by the 
lecture, there was seldom a gathering up of the results 
by the circulation of the pledge, for in many places, the 
Washington Temperance Societies had been abandoned, 
and in others, the order of the Sons of Temperance had 
been established, and it was not their usual custom to 
pledge the people to abstinence, except so far as they 
were ready to join the order ; and I, for one, have never 
felt the same degree of freedom to urge membership in 
one of the orders, as I did the joining of open societies, 

(288) 



GUERRILLA WARFARE. 289 

because, in urging the pledge, wliicli all needed, I should 
be urging many of my audience to do what their con- 
sciences did not altogether approve, and a compliance 
with new conditions, aside from the pledge, which, to 
many of the best people in my audiences, I knew were 
distasteful. 

In urging the simple pledge of total abstinence, I had 
no such embarrassments. It was, under God, the anchor 
of our hopes, applicable and needful to the venerable 
statesman or divine, as well as to tliQ children around 
our hearths, or in the school-room, to the occasional 
drinker, and the poor besotted drunkard. 

It was a grand and potent preventive of intemperance, 
and it was, while kept, a perfect curative, which never 
has failed and never will. All other appliances without 
the pledge and practice of abstinence, cannot be relied 
upon to prevent or arrest drunkenness. The pledge and 
practice of abstinence alone will prevent drunkenness, 
whatever other good it may fail to do. 

Despairing of any general system of efforts or opera- 
tions, until years of comparatively unproductive labor 
and a succession of disappointments and partial failures 
should have educated my fellow-laborers to sounder 
views, and heartily sick of guerrilla warfare, and, withal, 
suffering from ill health, caused more by heartache in 
view of the existing state of things than by long and 
laborious service, I addressed to the editor of a temper- 
ance paper published in Worcester the following letter : 

Hartford, Ct., Nov. 21st, 1848. 
Friend Goodrich : — 

I have made up my mind fully to retire from the field of labor in 
which I have been employed for the lj\st nine years, and return to 
18 



290 ARRESTED AND SENT TO THE FRONT. 

the practice of my profession. A variety of causes liave contrib- 
uted to confirm me in the determination I have expressed. 

I have received a pressing invitation to locate in a very pleasant 
town in New Haven county, from which a physician, advanced in 
year^, is about to remove, and I think I shall accept the invitation 
Before, however, I lay down the teetotal trumpet, and take up the 
lancet and the pill box, I propose to visit Massachusetts and spend a 
few days on my old battle ground that I may meet once more old 
friends with whom I have so long labored. 

If in any of yoar good temperance towns, there are those who 
would desire to hear a farewell discourse from '' Dr. Jewett," they 
will please direct a line to the editor of the Cataract, Worcester, 
Mass., and therein express their wishes. Yours fraternally, 

Charles Jewett. 

Very many invitations came in answer to the above, 
and everywhere the friends urged me to reconsider my 
purpose of retiring from public labor. 

While thus engaged, an event occurred which will be 
understood from the following brief editorial. It ap- 
peared in the " Cataract" of Feb. 15th, 1849. 

THEY TOOK HIM AT HIS WORD. 
At the conclusion of a discourse, recently delivered by Dr. Jew- 
ett, at Clintonville, and after the mass of the audience had retired 
from the Hall, a number of gentlemen took occasion to express to 
the doctor their regret that he was about to leave the field as a pub- 
lic lecturer. Dr. Jewett replied, that no one could regret it more 
sincerely than himself, but that a necessity seemed laid upon him to 
do so, as the experience of the last two years had convinced him 
that his health would not endure the labor of continued public 
speaking through the summer months, and that he could not secure 
subsistence for his family by the rewards he received for public ser- 
vices during a part of the year. He added, that, if he had been 
able to purchase a small farm in the country, from the cultivation 
of which he could, during the summer months, have secured the 
means of subsistence for his family, while he might have been re- 



ARRESTED AND SENT TO THE FRONT. 291 

cruiting his energies for a winter's campaign, he would not have left 
the field. '• Then you shall not leave it" was the prompt reply of 
he gentlemen present. After Dr. Jewett had left the place, a con- 
sultation was held among the friends of the cause, and. they are put- 
ting forth efforts to jjlace $1,000 in the hands of Dr. Jewett, which, 
with his present property, will secure him " the little farm" and 
secure his continued services in the cause during the winter months, 
which constitute the most valuable portion of the year for the pur- 
pose of public instruction. We are happy to hear that the move- 
ment is meeting a hearty response from various quarters. We hope 
it may be successful. Friends of the cause, who feel any interest in 
keeping Dr. Jewett still at work in the temperance vineyard, will 
have now an opportunity to manifest it, as the gentlemen above re- 
ferred to have sent circulars to our strong temperance towns solicit- 
ing aid in behalf of the object they seek to accomplish. A dollar 
each from a thousand teetotalers, sent to H. N. Bigelow and S. Har- 
ris of Clintonville, will do the business. 

The immediate movers in this matter, it will be seen, 
were Messrs. H. N. Bigelow and Sidney Harris, both of 
Clintonville, Massachusetts. As they were both gentle- 
men of wealth and influence, and of established reputa- 
tion as practical and successful business men, all who 
became acquainted with the project had confidence from 
the start that it would be a success. The prompt and 
liberal manner in which the friends of temperance re- 
sponded to this call, gave me gratifying evidence of 
their kind regard for me personally, for which I have 
ever been grateful. 

The thousand dollars thus placed in my hands, with 
the little property I had saved during ten years of labor 
as a public lecturer, enabled me to purchase a small 
farm in Millbury, Massachusetts, where I continued to 
reside until 1854, lecturing about 6ight months each 
year, and devoting the remainder of the time to the cul- 



292 GETTING INTO TYPE. 

tivation of my farm and to writing for the press. Dur- 
ing these years my labor as an advocate of temperance 
was not confined to Massachusetts, nor even the New 
England states. I visited not only all the Western 
states east of the Mississippi, but the British Provinces. 
Some incidents of these itinerant labors start up in my 
memory as I take a retrospective glance over those 
years, and seem to claim a brief mention in this history 
of my life work. 

Soon after my location in Millbury, I published a vol- 
ume of two hundred pages, with the following title : 
" Speeches, Poems, and Miscellaneous Writings on Sub- 
jects connected with Temperance and the Liquor Traf- 
fic." It contained reports of six lectures, on as many 
different phases of the general subject of temperance as 
I had been accustomed to deliver them ; three as re- 
ported phonographically by H. E. Rockwell, Esq., and 
the others from memory. The titles of those lectures 
only, I shall here record. If my life shall be prolonged, 
and the interest manifested in my views of the subject 
may seem to warrant, I may republish them, together 
with other lectures of later years, embodying more ma- 
tured views of the subject, especially in its scientific 
aspects. The lectures which found place in the volume 
referred to, were on the following special topics : 

" The Law and Tendencies of Artificial Appetites." 

"The Warfare op the Liquor Traffic on all Use- 
ful Trades and Occupations." 

" Characteristics of Intemperance, as seen in its 
^Effects on Communities, States, and Nations." 

"Intemperance as a Vice of Individual Man." 



FRONT TO FRONT. 293 

"Prospective Results of the Traffic in Intoxi- 
cating Liquors." 

"Means or Instrumentalities for Removing the 
Curse of Intemperance." 

These discourses filled more than half the pages of 
the volume, the remaining ones being occupied by ex- 
tracts from poems delivered on public occasions, and 
short articles in prose and verse, by which I had sought 
to give interest to the various temperance periodicals 
with which I had been connected during the previous 
ten years. 

The volume was kindly received by my fellow-laborers 
throughout the country, and I have often been comforted 
by the assurance of friends that it had been of essential 
service to them in their studies of the subject, and their 
labors to advance the enterprise. 

During the first year of my residence in Millbury, and 
at the special request of that devoted friend of the cause, 
Deacon Moses Grant, of Boston, I performed a month's 
service in the county of Hampden. It was the only 
county in Massachusetts ■ in which the license system 
had not been condemned by the vote of the people, and 
an effort was to be made to secure there the election of 
Temperance County Commissioners. Three good men 
were nominated for the office in whose integrity and 
devotion to the cause all could confide, and the host of 
bad or deluded men in the county were active in efforts 
to defeat their election, and thus to continue in office 
the old board, who had dotted the county all over with 
licensed grog-shops, which they themselves liberally pat- 
ronized, unless rumor belied them. Both parties put 



294 WE ROUT THEM. 

forth all tlipir strength in the struggle. I never worked 
harder in my life, than during that month, and I closed 
my labors there with an address to the people of Spring- 
held, the county town, on the evening previous to the 
election. It was the eve of the Sabbath, and there were 
no vacant seats in the City Hall. I drew the attention 
of those before me to the extraordinary spectacle which 
the county was exhibiting to the world just then, in 
licensing a traffic which it had been proved produced 
four-fifths of the crimes in the country, multiplying 
criminals to such an extent that it had become neces- 
sary to enlarge the county prison, and while the street 
in front of the prison was obstructed with huge blocks 
of granite to be wrought into its extending walls, — a 
large portion of the people of the county" were using all 
possible efforts to continue that destructive traffic in 
their midst. I expressd my approval of the enlargement 
of their prison, if licenses must still- be granted, for the 
same reason that I would commend the forethought of 
the farmer, who, while planting additional acres, put an 
addition to his corn-crib. I judged from the manner in 
wiiich that suggestion was received, that the people saw 
the point. 

The following morning I returned to my home by the 
first train, as I was worn and weary, and could render 
no assistance at the polls, having my residence in an- 
other county. Tuesday morning I rode to Worcester, 
which was but five miles from my home, to get the news 
from Hampden County when the western train should 
arrive. As soon as it reached tlie Worcester Depot, I 
stepped into the cars and inquired if some gentleman 
could give me a glance for a moment at a Springfield 



COMFORTABLE. 295 

morning paper. No one seemed to possess a copy, but 
one generous, though deluded man, divining my wishes, 
addressed 14^ thus : " I suppose, Doctor, you want news 
from the election yesterday ?" " You are right, sir," 
I replied, " that is exactly what I want just now." 
" Well," said he, " I am not one of your cold-water folks, 
and I did all I could to defeat them, but they elected 
their ticket by about one thousand majority in the 
county." " I thank you, sir," said I, " for the informa- 
tion, and I thank God for the result." 

My ride home from Worcester that morning, was un- 
usually pleasant. The last county in Massachusetts had 
condemned the wicked and destructive license system ; 
the cause was onward, and I rejoiced. Reader, do you 
know by happy personal experience, the joy that fills 
the soul when some signal success is attained in some 
grand work, in which one can have no personal and self- 
ish interest, but which will, if perfected, certainly and 
greatly promote the public good, and the happiness of 
all around you ? I hope you have felt it, but if not, I 
hope you will attain to it while yet in the flesh, for you 
will never know that particular joy, even in Heaven, 
unless you experience it here. 

Another season of personal happiness, related some- 
wdiat to that already described, and growing out of the 
events just narrated, as the harvest results from the 
seed sown, was of a character impossible to forget. The 
event afforded " a joy for memory." 

Some months after the triumph already recorded, it 
may have been a year, I was advertised to speak again 
in Springfield on a certain Sabbath evening. Reaching 
the city Saturday eve, I spent the night and the Sabbath 



296 VISITING THE PRISONERS. 

day with a valued friend, a Mr. Ingersoll, who was 
deeply interested in all good work, temperance of course 
included. On Sab-bath morning, my kin^ntertainer, 
who was at that time P/tymaster of the United States 
Armory, invited me to spend an hour or two in the Sab- 
bath School connected with the county jail. He was its 
superintendent, and would, he said, omit the usual les- 
sons of the day, if I would occupy the time with an 
address to the prisoners. I consented to do so, and 
walked with him to the prison. Taking our seats in the 
desk of the Chapel, we awaited the coming of the pris- 
oners. Presently the doors at the rear of the Hall 
were opened, and preceded by one of the officers, and 
accompanied by others, the long line of prisoners, two 
by two, filed into the room, in an order quite military. 
When the congregation was seated and the preliminary 
exercises were being concluded by the singing of a hymn, 
and while my brain was unusually active in arranging a 
train of thought which should be suitable to the occa- 
sion, my friend, the Superintendent, turned to me, and in 
an undertone remarked, that I had probably never ad- 
dressed such an audience before. " Oh, yes I have," 1 
replied. " I have repeatedly addressed the inmates not 
only of county, but of State Prisons, where five times 
the number of prisoners here, were before me." Still 
he insisted, and with a very peculiar expression of coun- 
tenance, as he spoke, that I had never addressed such a 
congregation before. " Well, what is there so very pe- 
culiar about this congregation ?" I asked. Placing his 
mouth close to my ear he replied, in a very emphatic 
and happy whisper, thus : " A large portion of the con- 



7ISITING THE PRISONERS. 297 

gregation before you are liquor-sellers, sent here for 
violation of the law." 

I wanted to shout " Hosanna !" but I did not. 

" Well," thought I, " liquor- sellers are always in favor 
of moral suasion, atid now, all good spirits helping me, 
I will give you a good dose of it." Of course I would 
not take advantage of my position to abuse the men, or 
needlessly to wound their feelings, but without doing 
either, I think I managed, in my address to them, to 
make tolerably clear the cause of a large portion of the 
needless suffering which all benevolent people are seek- 
ing to alleviate, and of the crime which society is com- 
pelled to punish, or submit to disintegration, bankruptcy, 
and ruin. 

It should be stated, that under the laws of Massachu- 
setts, and at that time, the penalty of a third offence for 
selling liquors without license, was imprisonment in the 
county jail. It struck me as a more just and politic ar- 
rangement altogether, to put, say, fifty liquor-sellers in 
jail, and thus stop their destructive business, than to 
allow them to go on with it, and sooner or later, be 
compelled to send to jail, or otherwise confine, some 
hundreds, or even thousands of their customers — ren- 
dered insane and criminal by their maddening liquors. 

Such a decided condemnation of the liquor traffic by 
the legal voters of Massachusetts, coupled with the fact 
,that nineteen-twentieths of the mothers, wives, and 
daughters of the state, denounced it as an unmitigated 
curse wherever it became a subject of remark, ought to 
have been followed at once by its entire suppression, and 
the question will naturally arise in the mind of the 
thoughtful reader, why it is still permitted to exist, es- 



298 SHAM DEMOCRACY AND THE RUM TRAFFIC. 

pecially as no other branch, of business, institution, or 
custom of its people, has been able to resist an adverse 
public sentiment and the force of law. A variety of 
influences have contributed to this extraordinary and 
disgraceful result, some of which it may be well to men- 
tion : and, 

First. An entire political party, the Democratic, has, 
through the influence of its leaders, been held for thirty 
years in an attitude of determined hostility to all effec- 
tive legislation against the liquor traffic. Very many 
of its adherents have practiced total abstinence mean- 
while, and in the communities where they resided, have 
been counted among the friends of temperance, often 
members of our organizations. They have, however, at 
least a large majority of them, been careful to have it 
understood that temperance, with them, meant only a 
war of words against the dram-shops, but no friendship 
to restrictive laws. The few of that party who have in 
their own localities favored the enforcement of restric- 
tive or prohibitory laws, have never, in the annual con- 
ventions of their party or elsewhere, uttered any decided 
protest against the square and outspoken commitment 
of it to the defence of the liquor traffic and an attitude 
of hostility to all effective efforts for its suppression. 

All that has been done by the enforcement of the 
state's laws against the liquor system has, therefore, 
been done in the face of all the opposition possible from 
the leaders and organs of one of those great parties, 
into which the people of this country have ever been 
politically divided. 

When laws, enacted by the dominant party of the 
state, have been rigidly enforced in any particular local- 



REPUBLICANS UNSOUND AND TIMID. 299 

ity, so as to* render it difficult for the lovers of drink to 
secure their supplies — the astute leaders of democracy 
there, have at once referred the affliction to anti-demo- 
cratic legislation, and have assured the complainers, if 
connected with the opposite party, that if they would 
but act sensibly, and give their votes and influence to 
the democracy, and thus put the party in power, these 
sumptuary laws, as they have chosen to call them, would 
be at once repealed. 

This attitude of the democracy, and the occasional 
loss of political ascendency in certain localities where 
the law has been rigidly enforced, has made the party 
responsible for its preservation exceedingly timid, be- 
cause its leaders well knew what in fact is quite evident 
to all observers, that the Republican party, even in the 
most favored of the New England States, numbers 
among its adherents many men bitterly hostile to the 
laws, aye, even supporters and patrons of the liquor 
shops. 

This state of things has greatly complicated the work 
of suppressing the liquor traffic, even where there is a 
strong public sentiment against it. 

Still, in Massachusetts, the Republican party may 
justly be held responsible for the continued violation of 
the law in many of the large cities of the state, and for 
that temporizing policy which has postponed the triumph 
of right and justice, as connected with the liquor traffic, 
because its majority was so overwhelming, that any dis- 
affection in its ranks, which might be created by a faith- 
ful discharge of its duty in relation to the matter, could 
not have thrown it out of power. It has happened that, 
\n the Providence of God, the states of Maine, Massa- 



300 A GLORIOUS OPPORTUNITY. 

chusetts, and Yermont, have afforded the mt)st favored 
fields on which to exhibit to the world the assured pros- 
perity and blessedness which would result from the com- 
plete suppression of the liquor traffic. Such an exhibi- 
tion of freedom from pauperism and crime, by entire 
states, and the inevitable advance of the people, in 
intelligence, moral purity, and social happiness, would 
commend abstinence and prohibition to a gazing world, 
as all our arguments cannot, and would render the anni- 
hilation of the liquor system in all christian countries, 
only a question of time. If such an example, and the 
fruits of it, are lost to the world through the cowardice 
and faithlessness of the people of those states, they will 
surely incur the wrath of God, and the condemnation of 
all good men. 

In states wliere, as in Connecticut, the political par- 
ties are nearly equal in numbers, and one of them shall 
fully commit itself against the legal suppression of the 
liquor traffic, the opposing party, embracing, as in that 
case it must, all our real available temperance strength, 
cannot, if they would, crush the trade, until it attains to 
a unity of sentiment on the subject. 

If they attempt it, and are likely to be successful, 
many in their ranks who love whisky better than the 
principles of their party, will bolt, go over to the party 
opposed to the law, put it in power, and thus we should 
be thrown back on the infamous license system. 

Suppose, now, the party embracing the mass of our 
friends, seeing the state of things, refuse to move for- 
ward to a position where political death is certain. 
What shall we gain by waging a war upon them, and 
attempting to cripple them by drawing off votes to a 



POLITICAL ACTION. 301 

third party ? We do not thereby multiply temperance 
voters. We may, however, do another work less desir- 
able. We may offend and disgust many of our own 
brethren by our ingratitude and folly — so that for the 
future we may not be al)le to count on their support, 
when, by a further education of the people, and under 
more fortunate circumstances, an opportunity for a tri- 
umph of our cause is before us, could we but consolidate 
our strength. 

A party which, in answer to our petition, has retained 
the law on the statute book for years, in spite of all 
opposition, which has already suffered at some points 
the loss of voters on account of its course, but which 
finds it impracticable to move further at present in the 
desired direction, without cutting its own throat, and 
imperiling all that has been gained, wounding us as 
deeply at the same time as it wounds itself, is not a 
proper subject for our maledictions. Our curses and 
attempts to cripple it, would be but a poor return for 
its support of our measures, up to the entire limit of its 
ability. 

Doubtless some will still urge that the party holding 
the power at present, in Connecticut, should exert it to 
the fullest extent to promote the ends of right and jus- 
tice, witliout stopping to calculate the possible conse- 
quences in loss of votes or influence. It is an easier 
task to commend the glories of martyrdom to others, 
than to secure them as a personal possession. 

The world sadly needs instruction on this great ques- 
tion of the use or disuse of intoxicating liquors. To 
enlighten it is a blessed work. If now, my zealous and 
impatient brother will sell his farm, his bank shares, or 



302 POLITICAL ACTION. 

E,. R. and •Government stocks, and will, with the avails, 
scatter among the people millions of pages rich with 
glorious truths in reference to the matter, can he doubt 
that great good would result therefrom ? He certainly 
cannot. But will he do it ? Probably not, lest he 
should thereby reduce himself and family to want. 
Here, now, personal interests are permitted to come in 
and limit the amount of good he will undertake to do. 
Will our brother now demand of a great party greater 
devotion to the temperance cause than his own example 
is calculated to.inspire ? 

The friends of abstinence and prohibition throughout 
tlie land may as well understand now as after a long 
series of struggles and disappointments, that where we 
have not overwhelming majorities educated to a hearty 
hatred of the liquor traffic, it is utterly in vain to make 
an immediate move for general prohibition. Could such 
a law be placed at once upon the statute book, and were 
all our magistrates thoroughly with us in sentiment, 
and the best men we have in our ranks appointed as ex- 
ecutive officers to see to its proper enforcement, still we 
should fail to secure the end desired, where the public 
sentiment of the majority is against us. The question 
relative to the punishment of men for the illegal sale 
of liquors, must, if the violator of law chooses to appeal 
from our inferior courts, be ultimately submitted to a 
jury, and where the .public sentiment strongly favors 
liquor-selling and liquor-drinking, juries will not con- 
vict. 

We may pour our condemnation into their ears for 
their wanton disregard of duties they have sworn to per- 
form, but they will care little for it. Our voices of cen- 



POLITICAL ACTION. 303 

sure will be drowned by the plaudits of the crowd, and 
recreant jurors will be thus sustained. It is vain for us 
to work ourselves into an impotent rage over the matter, 
afflicting ourselves and those around us. The work be- 
fore us, under such circumstances, is not a quarrel with 
parties, legislators, or juries, but a steady, patient, kind, 
and persevering presentation of the truth to the minds 
of the people. It is thus we have prepared three states 
at least for thorough prohibition, and there I will join 
my brethren in sternly demanding it. 

Beside the championship of the rum interests by the 
democratic party, other influences contributed to prevent 
the immediate and general suppression of the liquor 
traffic in Massachusetts, as demanded by the voice of an 
overwhelming majority of its people, prior to the pas- 
sage of the present prohibitory law. The penalties of 
former laws were for first and second offences only fines 
and costs ; and mere money penalties will never deter 
bad men from violations of law by which large gains are 
secured. Though liquor-sellers notoriously dislike to 
accompany the poor deluded victims of their traffic to 
the jail, they would still venture to violate law where 
imprisonment was the penalty only of a third and subse- 
quent offences, for they would have two warnings in the 
shape of convictions, and if they chanced to be con- 
victed of three offences at the same session of the court, 
and thoughts of bolts and grated windows happen to 
trouble them, they could generally appeal with success 
to the mercy of the good-natured temperance prosecu- 
tors, and in answer to tlieir application the good-natured 
judge would postpone the passage of sentence until the 
next session of the court, the offender solemnly promis- 



304 THEY BEG OFF. 

iiig meanwhile to obey the laws. The true method of 
dealing with these public poisoners, I shall indicate when 
I come to consider that new era in the cause created by 
the passage of the Maine Law. 

A number of the influential public journals of Massa- 
chusetts have largely contributed to prevent the thorough 
enforcement of its laws intended to cripple the liquor 
traffic. That they have been enabled to exert so exten- 
sive an influence for evil, is the fault of the friends of 
temperance of course ; for had they generally withdrawn 
their patronage from such papers, and left them, as they 
should, to the patronage of the liquor party, whose views 
and claims they advocated, a diminished circulation and 
a failing income would soon have converted their pro- 
prietors and conductors to a more honorable course. As 
it was, a double motive prompted the conductors of such 
journals to the course they have for many years pur- 
sued — the gratification of their own depraved appetites, 
and a desire for a liberal portion of the ill-gotten gains 
of liquor-sellers, notoriously liberal in their support 
of those who will oppose the passage or enforcement of 
prohibitory laws. There are no more dangerous enemies 
of the civil government, good morals, and all the sub- 
stantial interests of society, than able, ingenious, but 
venal and corrupt, conductors of influential public jour- 
nals. I hardly dare think, after midday, of the course 
pursued by some of the daily papers of Massachusetts 
during the last twenty-five years^ lest the sun should go 
down on my wrath. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

The Maine Law — Reaction, how created — False Witnesses — Work- 
ing up a " reaction" — A Prophecy — Its fulfillment — How it grew — 
Search and Seizure — Cleaned out — A Yiper without fangs — Try- 
ing it on — Terrible threats — Nobody hurt — We roll them out — 
Legs — Three cheers for the Law — Cargoes or Pint Bottles ? 
Either ! — Property — Pour it out. 

The year 1851 constituted a new era in the tempe- 
rance reform, for it gave us the Maine Law. Its enact- 
ment was the first attempt to crush entirely^ by statute 
law, the springs and sources of drunkenness, or all traffic 
in intoxicating liquors to be used as a drink. Its en- 
forcement, during the first years after its passage, 
demonstrated its ability to cope fully with the gigantic 
evil which before had broken through all legal restraints, 
as some strong animal would break through a spider's 
web. Former laws had been able to suppress dram- 
shops in communities where the public sentiment strong- 
ly favored such suppression, but the distiller and whole- 
sale dealer, the- proprietor of the great wine-store, with 
its elegant array of bottles of various hues, and the 
beer-bloated brewer, they had laughed at all restrictive 
legislation, and with their enormous profits had stood 
behind and encouraged retailers to violate the laws, had 
given bail for them at the courts when in trouble, appa- 
rently deeming it impossible for law to reach gentlemen 

(305) 



^05 THE MAINE LAW. 

of such vast possessions and higli social position. But 
a rod was in pickle for those gentlemen of which they 
had not even dreamed. 

A careful study of the law of 1838, given in a former 
chapter, and which was a great advance on all previous 
legislation of the present century, will impress the 
reader with the extreme mildness of its character as 
compared with the Maine Law, and the narrow limits 
within which its powers could be employed against the 
gigantic system of injustice and cruelty from which we 
were suffering. It aimed only at the traffic in '' Spiritu- 
ous liquors and mixed liquors a part of which were 
spirituous," " in quantities less than fifteen gallons." 
The Maine Law strikes at the whole tribe of liquid in- 
toxicants in all their varieties and in all quantities ; and 
while forbidding the traffic therein, forbids also the manu- 
facture, and arrests the destructive agent in transitu. Its 
most effective feature and that which exhibits most the 
thorough knowledge and sagacity of its author, is just 
the one wliich our mere theorist and would-be Solons 
find most fault with, the " Search and Seizure clause." 
No one can properly estimate the value of that provision 
of the law, who has not seen and compared its practical 
working with that of other statutes which lack it. 

Very much is said ol the reaction which the stern and 
impartial enforcement of prohibitory statutes occasions 
in communities where the experiment is tried, and thou- 
sands who are profoundly impressed with the injustice 
and wicl^edness of the traffic, and who clearly see the 
necessity of legal measures to restrain or arrest it, are 
deterred from active participation therein, through fear 
that the wrath of the sellers -or the drinking fraternity 



307 

will be visited upon them in the destruction of their 
property. But let us consider how that much-dreaded 
" reaction" is worked up, and how the destruction of 
property results therefrom. Every liquor-bar, grog- 
shop, or saloon, from which intoxicating liquors have 
been retailed for a few weeks or months, has about it a 
regular list of customers, in the various stages of the 
process of descent from moderate but regular tippling to 
the consumption, perhaps, of a quart per day. Among 
these will often be found one or more daring fellows, not 
abusive or criminally disposed when sober, but ready for 
any kind of mischief when in the second, or criminal 
stage of intoxication. 

Now let us suppose such a liquor-seller prosecuted for 
selling without license, and taken before a court of jus- 
tice. His customers are summoned as witnesses. The 
chances are more than two to one, that the prosecution 
will fail for want of evidence, although no one doubts 
that some if not all the witnesses have drank and paid 
for liquors in that establishment repeatedly within the 
last twenty-four hours. Their memories are very treach- 
erous. They " drank something there, but did not know 
what it was." It is quite evident to all present that 
the witness does not intend to tell the truth, lest the 
result should be that his friend, as he regards him who 
furnishes him his- much-loved drink, shall thereby come 
to grief. But let us suppose that some of the T^atnesses 
tell the trut]i, and the grog-seller is convicted. He pays 
his fine and costs it may be, or appeals to a higher c^^jirt 
and gives bonds for his appearance there, and then what 
follows ? 

It is worth our while to consider carefully the answer 



303 WORKING UP A "REACTION. 

to that question. He returns to his place of business, 
"well stocked with maddening poisons, which will attract 
there the most dangerous and reckless men of that com- 
munity, and fit them for any work of mischief he may 
suggest. 

Ambitious to display their zeal for the persecuted 
saint who is profiting by their ruin, each vies with the 
other in ex^)iessing his hatred of the law, and of those 
who have been concerned in its enforcement. For such 
a manifestation of sympathy for him, and indignation 
against his enemies, as all agree to regard them, what 
return can he make so fitting as a treat all round ? 
Stronger expressions of their wrath against the prose- 
cutors follow, and another free drink, and thus the mis- 
erable satellites of the liquor-seller are wrought up to a 
perfect frenzy of rage which the crafty dealer will em- 
ploy for the punishment of complainants, or parties 
engaged in his prosecution. 

If the sufferer from legal penalties be sober enough 
to be cautious, he will not directly express his wish for 
the destruction of their property, but will do it by hints 
and prophetic suggestions. From reports of reformed 
men who, before the blessed change in their habits, were 
perfectly familiar with grog-shop operations and influ- 
ences, we are quite well instructed in relation to the 
modes of procedure in cases like that under considera- 
tion. "I should not wonder," says Sir Toddy-Stick, 
" if some of those fellows should meet with some acci- 
dent before long, that will set them to thinking. Awful 
judgments come on men that, don't know enough to 
mind their own business, and keep meddling with the 
affairs of their neighbors. I should not wonder at all, 



A PROPHECY — ITS FULFILLMENT. 309 

if there should come a big thunder-storm one of these 
nights, and lightning should strike that Sam Jones's 
haystacks, or grain-barn, and he should have a bonfire 
that will shed considerable light on matters and things." 

'' Nor I, either," responds Bill Guzzle, " and I shouldn't 
wonder if lightnin' should strike 'em when there aint 
any storm." 

This very ingenious suggestion of Mr. Guzzle calls 
forth a round of applause, and is rewarded by another 
drink. Bill leaves the company, and in half an hour 
the village is startled by the cry of Fire ! Fire ! ! and it 
is soon learned that Mr. Samuel Jones is the sufferer 
therefrom. The results of a summer's labor perhaps, 
melt away in smoke and flame, as his reward for having 
performed his duty as a citizen in causing the laws of 
the State to be respected in his neighborhood. 

Here now is the " reaction" so much talked of and 
so justly feared from the enforcement of laws against 
the sellers of intoxicating liquors. Is it not apparent 
now to the dullest intellect, that the producing cause of 
all this was the liquor ? That was the attraction that 
drew the thirsty group to the grog-shop. TJiat was the 
agent with which the liquor-seller testified his apprecia- 
tion of the sympathy and devotion of his friends. That 
was the article that muddled the brain, excited the base 
passions, and paralyzed the moral sense of Bill Guzzle, 
and fitted him for the work of the incendiary. 

A law to be effective, and safely enforced, therefore, 
should strike first of all at the stock of liquors on hand. 
Thus reasoned the author of the Maine Law, the Hon. 
Neal Dow, who is not the Utopian dreamer and fanatic 
that many have been taught to believe, but a man of 
large, and eminently practical intellect. 



310 HOW IT GREW. 

No statute can ever crush the liquor system, or be 
enforced with safety, that does not, like the Maine Law, 
strike first of all at the destructive agent. Having 
repeatedly aided public officers in the search for, and 
seizure of liquors in Maine, I can speak from actual 
observation, and strong terms would be required to 
express fully my admiration of that excellent statute. 

It did not grow up like a mushroom in a night, but is 
an accretion of provisions suggested by the failures of 
earlier statutes. For many years its author had carefully 
observed the practical working of former laws. When- 
ever, through the aid of ingenious counsel, a notorious 
violator escaped justice through some defect therein, a 
note was made of the fact, and thrust into a certain 
pigeon hole in the secretary of Neal Dow, for future 
use. These suggestions accumulated, and when that 
gentleman sat down to draft that world-renowned statute, 
these practical points were all considered and provided 
for. Hence the perfection of the law, and its wonderful 
efficiency where a public sentiment has been formed 
which demands the extinction of the traffic. 

Many honest, but ill informed men who were yet in 
favor of prohibition, have told me that they were heartily 
in favor of the Maine Law except that " search and 
seizure" clause. They had, by the clamor of interested 
parties, been led to believe that that provision authorized 
an unwarrantable encroachment upon the rights of the 
citizen, just as though the domicil had not for centuries 
been subject to searcli, and unlawful possessions to 
seizure, wherever the demands of justice imperatively 
required it. Good-natured friends of good causes are 
quite too apt to be influenced by mere clamor, and to 



SEARCH AND SEIZURE. 311 

pause in their work at a critical moment, tlms giving 
our opponents a decided advantage, when duty to all 
concerned requires them to move steadily forward and 
" let the music play." 

It ought to suffice for all to know that every provision 
of the Maine Law has undergone the searching scrutiny 
of some of the best legal minds of our country, of many 
of our most renowned judges, and received their unqual- 
ified sanction. 

But to return to its practical working and the safety 
of its enforcement as compared with other forms of law 
intended to restrain or suppress the traffic. The " search 
and seizure" clause should be employed, in my judgment, 
in all cases to which it is adapted, and there are few 
cases to which it is not. As we have already seen, an 
unlicensed seller of liquors, convicted and punished by 
fine and costs, leaves the court-room, and returns to his 
place of business well stocked with liquors, very dan- 
gerous articles in the hands of a bad man ; for by their 
use he can prepare his pliant and obsequious tools for 
any service, however perilous to them, or destructive to 
the interests of society. 

But suppose we obtain a legal warrant for the search 
of the premises of Mr. Heartless, and the seizure of 
liquors " held with intent to sell." The officer executes 
the warrant, finds a stock of liquors of various kinds, 
seizes the same, and directs the truckman or teamster 
to convey them to a place for safe keeping until the final 
adjudication of the case. The next move is to arrest 
the seller or owner of the liquors. He is put on trial, 
and the possession of such a stock of villainous com- 
pounds, of the usual measures, with tlie decanters, 



312 CLEANED OUT. 

glasses, toddy-stick, &c., are so many evidences against 
him. You have not now to depend oii the uncertain 
testimony of liis demoralized customers, but on inani- 
mate materials which mil not lie whatever other mis- 
chief they may do. There has been no gathering 
together of his customers as witnesses. They were not 
wanted. 

We will suppose the individual convicted and fined. 
He pays his fine and costs, or appeals his case and gives 
bonds, and is then at liberty to return to his home, or 
place of business. How altered now is the state of 
things. His liquors, glasses, toddy-sticks, &c., gone, 
the place empty, and if not ^^ swept and garnished," 
desolate enough. He paces the room to and fro, looks 
up and down the street, and wonders" where, in this his 
time of trouble, are those devoted friends who have so 
often sworn to stand by him in every emergency. The 
facts are, that while he has deceived his poor customers, 
he has been himself deceived in supposing that they 
cared even so much as the price of a dram of poor 
whisky for him, in any relation other than that of a dis- 
penser of liquors. Now he has no liquors to dispose of, 
and they know it. They have heard probably that his 
entire stock has been seized and taken away. Why 
should they trouble themselves to visit a place where 
there is nothing to drink ? They know no reason why, 
and it would be difficult to frame one. Hitherto when 
he so warmly welcomed them to his shop, it was because 
he expected to profit by their folly, and when they talked 
of their devotion to him, they meant his liquors rather. 
Whence now is to come the dreaded reaction from the 
enforcement of the law ? A liquor seller without liquors 



A YIPER WITHOUT FANGS. 813 

is one of the most harmless of all bad animals. A vi- 
per without fangs, a vicious but toothless mastiff, are his 
fitting representatives. 

The enforcement of the Maine Law proper in the way 
described, has rarely been followed by the destruction 
of the property of complainants. The enforcement of 
former laws, or those wliich dealt simply with the dealer, 
but did not interfere with his liquors, has been followed 
by the destruction not only of vast amounts of property, 
but in some instances by the loss of valuable lives ; two 
at least, in the smallest state in the Union, Rhode 
Island. 

Soon after the passage of the law, in June, 1851, a 
copy was sent me by its author, and my opinion of the 
statute solicited. I replied promptly that the traffic 
would certainly be crushed under its proper enforcement, 
but expressed some anxiety lest it should be found in 
advance of the public sentiment of the state, and I 
urged that the friends should at once redouble their ex- 
ertions to enlighten the public mind on all points at 
issue, and urged the immediate and stern enforcement 
of the law. Although I had intended to devote the 
summer manths to rest and recuperation, I tendered my 
services in aid of the work which I felt to be needful in 
the emergency which the passage of the law had created, 
and a series of appointments were made for me, com- 
mencing on the Kennebec, and ending with Calais, on 
the eastern border of the state. Never did I engage in 
work with higher hopes or greater alacrity, and my ex- 
perience and observation during that tour forever settled 
my opinion as to the true method of dealing with the 
liquor traffic in localities where the public mind has been 
properly enlightened. 
14 



314 A VISIT TO THE SPIRITS IN PRISON. 

On my way to this interesting field of labor, I tarried 
a day or two at Portland, with rny friend Neal Dow, 
then Mayor of that city. The morning after my arrival 
an incident occmTed which I thought worthy of record. 
After witnessing it, and enjoying a pleasant stroll 
through one of the most beautiful cities on this conti- 
nent, I returned to the residence of my friend Dow, and 
wrote the following article, in which facts and fancies 
somehow got strangely mingled. The reader will find 
no serious difficulty, I imagine, in making the proper 
discrimination between them. 

A VISIT TO THE SPIRITS IN PRISON. 

While walking down the streets of Portland, this morning, in 
company with the very efficient mayor of that beautiful city, I was 
invited to step with him across the street and take a look at the 
imprisoned " spirits " shut up in durance vile beneath the City Hall. 
I accepted the invitation, and in a moment found myself in a large 
basement room, surrounded on all sides by the imprisoned fiends, 
Avhich, under the recently enacted and most righteous law of the 
state, had been arrested in their march from the mouth of the still 
to the mouths of the wretched men who had become already so far 
demonized as to desire the further acquaintance and companionship 
of those liquid devils. Three or four extensive seizures of the spirits 
had been made, and here they were all gathered in one group ; and 
a sorry-looking group it was. Their sad plight, piled on each other's 
backs around the apartment, recalled the language of Hamlet to the 
skull of poor Yorick ; — 

" Where be your gibes now ? your 
Gambols ? your songs ? your flashes of merriment 
That were wont to set the table in a roar ? . . . 
. . . Quite chapfallen." 

I looked upon the strong oak casks, some of them iron bound, and 
thought how fortunate it was that the hands of government had 
arrested them before their fiery and demonizing contents had got 



A VISIT TO THE SPIRITS IN PRISON. 315 

spilled into the stomachs of some of its poor deluded subjects. 
Long and ardently I had desired to see the government, in true pa- 
ernal regard for its sulTering poor, and for the thousands who are 
being hurried by the liquor traffic to ruin, exert its power promptly 
and effectually to stay the work of death. And here, at length, I 
am permitted to see the master spirit of mischief, the giant curse of 
the civilized world, chained. A feeling of exultation was kindled 
within me, which I have no words adequately to express. Aha ! 
thought I ; you who, with your kindred spirits^ have sent thousands 
to the watch-house, to the jail, and to the prison ; who have bolted 
the doors upon thousands of my brethren, and shut them out from 
the society of their families and the world, have gotton into limboes 
yourself! The angel of justice has at length come down, "with a 
great chain in his hand," and bound you. Here you await your 
trial, and if condemned, as you probably will be, you shall be led 
forth to execution, amid the rejoicings of an injured people, and 
your blood shall flow, not, as ye hoped, down the parched throats 
of men, but down the gutters and through the city sewers. Well, 
you are in a good way. Mother earth and the waters of the bay 
can swallow you and not reel, and that is more than men could do. 

How long have you trampled on laws human and divine, taken 
your own wild, wicked way, and gloried in your might ! Ye laughed 
at " restriction " and " regulation ;" but stronger words have been 
whispered in your ears by the legislature of Maine — " suppression," 
" annihilation ;" and lo, ye pause here to consider the import of the 
new vocabulary. Well, ye will learn it, no doubt, for ye are apt 
scholars. But how will your friends and adherents, not only in the 
city, but among the hills, regard your capture and detention ? 
They have hitherto gloried in your strength, and have asked exult- 
ingly, " Who is like unto the beast ? Who is able to make war 
against him ?" Maine hath answered in stern and decided tone, 
and — ye are here ! " The merchants of? those things, which were 
made rich by thee, shall stand afar off, for the fear of thy torment, 
weeping, and wailing, and crying, Alas ! . . . For in one hour 
so great riches have come to nought." 

What varied forms have ye taken, as I see ye here in your prison, 
and how varied your destination ! Here ye swell out in great bulk, 
like a corpulent, turtle-fed alderman, and there ye shrink almost to 



316 A VISIT TO THE SPIRITS IN PRISON. 

the dimensions of a water bucket. Let me look at your names, and 
learn whither ye were bound. '' American Gin, Parsonfield." And 
what business had you at Parsonfield ? Did the parson invite you to 
Visit his field ? Nay, verily. He would sooner have sent you to 
\he Potter's field. But to Parsonfield you were going ; and for what ? 
i^h, I remember. There is a poor widow in that neighborhood 
whose husbaqd ye slew^ and whose eldest son ye have poisoned, 
until the poor lad totters as he walks. His brain is on fire. He 
talks incoherently, and strange fancies possess him. Sometimes he 
curses the mother who bore him ; and those hands which, when a 
child, she pressed in hers while she prayed, have been lifted in vio- 
lence against her. She is almost distracted with her troubles, and 
knoweth not whither to turn for relief Despair has sometimes al- 
most taken possession of her soul. She hateth thee, and lifteth her 
eyes, swollen with weeping, and her feeble hands, to Heaven against 
thee. And thou wouldst afflict her still more ! Heartless, obdurate 
devil ! Yes, you v.-cre journeying to Parsonfield for that purpose ; 
but the angel of justice met thee, and — thou art here. How will 
that widow rejoice and sing when she shall hear the glad tidings of 
thy fall ! 

But let me look at thy brother fiend. " N. E. Rum, W. A., 
Bethel." And what was thy errand to Bethel? Jacob went up to 
Bethel, and built there an altar, because there the Lord met him in 
the time of his troubles. And you, too, have built an altar at 
Bethel, whereon thou dost sacrifice to strange gods. But goats and 
bullocks will not serve thee for sacrifices. The blood of our sons, 
" the expectancy and rose of the fair state," is smoking upon thine 
altar at Bethel. But thou art not there. Iron bands confine, and 
bolts and bars detain thee. Thine altar at Bethel will grow cold, 
and the sweet waters of the rejoicing heavens shall wash away its 
stains. " Old Madeira, 10 gallons, Wm. Baker, Brunswick." And 
you, old gentleman, were bound for Brunswick. There is a college 
at Brunswick ; and did ye covet an education ? " No, ye were going 
to teach, and not to be taught." So I supposed. A professor of 
infernal mathematics and languages, en route for Brunswick, to 
teach the young men big oaths, subtraction from the pocket, multi- 
plication of miserio-3, and reduction descending; ay, and to add 
thereto important instruction in your rule of three direct, to the 



TRYING IT ON. 317 

poorhouse, the prison, and the drunkard's grave. Yerily, a rule of 
three^ and as direct as one could desire. And " you give instructions 
in navigation." Ay, I have seen your pupils making trial of their 
skill ; and it was, indeed, an interesting exhibition ! 

But let us make the acquaintance of your next neighbor, Mr. St. 
Croix. And you, sir, were bound to Freeporl, but — did not get 
there. It was not a ^'port of entry " for you, it seems, with all its 
freedom. And what do you purpose to do now ? " Wait here the 
arrival of your friends from Boston." Very well ; we pledge you 
the word of the mayor and city marshal, that your friends shall 
visit you here, immediately on their arrival. Farewell to your 
devilships ; keep cool, and learn " the uses of afHiction." 

At Hallowell, no efforts had been made to enforce the 
new law when I reached the city. In conference with 
the leading friends of the cause, I urged an immediate 
advance upon the enemies' works. There was a man by 
the name of Oilman, who it was rumored had recently 
received a supply of liquors which he had determined 
to sell in defiance of law. He was reputed to be a man 
of violent temper, exceedingly belligerent, and, withal, a 
man of great physical power, and it was thought he 
would show fight if an attempt should be made to search 
his premises and seize his stock. He had sworn that if 
any man should enter his store to interfere with his 
business, he would cleave his head to the shoulders if 
there were any virtue in muscles and a good axe. I 
assured the friends that he would never strike a blow, 
if sober, when the officers of the law, with proper aids, 
should visit him. They thought otherwise. 

I volunteered my services to accompany the officer, 
and aid in the execution of a search warrant, if they 
could find three citizens who would make complaint ac- 
cording to law. They were soon found, and officer 



318 TERRIBLE THREATS I NOBODY HURT. 

Smith declared his readiness to execute the warrant. 
An energetic man by the name of Allen, if I rightly 
remember, small of stature but of good grit, also ten- 
dered his services to aid the officer. All needful steps 
were taken, teams provided to take the liquors away in 
case any should be found, and early on the following 
morning we paid the gentleman a visit. No sooner 
were we seen to enter the building, than the rowdies of 
the vicinity at once divined our object, and in less than 
thirty minutes a group numbering probably an hundred, 
had gathered in front of the store, to resist the enforce- 
ment of the law, and make short work with the fanat- 
ics. To prevent egress from the store by the way we 
had entered, they backed a horse cart closely against 
the open door-way, filled it with loafers, and as many of 
the rabble as possible crowded the passage. 

Matters began to look a little squally. Fourteen bar- 
rels of rum had been found in the store, but how were 
they to be taken thence, when the only passage there- 
from was blocked with an enraged group of loafers ? In 
a very threatening attitude Gilman demanded of me 
what business I had upon his premises. I informed him 
that I was there at the request of a civil officer, to aid 
him in the execution of a legal warrant. 

"You are, ha!" 

'' Yes, sir." 

"Well, get out of this store quick, or you will find 

yourself in trouble." 

I assured him I should not leave the store until or- 
dered by the officer. 

He stepped backward a few paces to arm himself, and 



WE ROLL THEM OUT — LEGS. 319 

advancing toward me with uplifted axe, said, " I under-, 
stand you to say that you will not leave my store." 

" Yes," I replied, "• I will not leave your store until 
ordered by the officer." 

The reader will desire to learn what awful event im- 
mediately happened. Well, just as I expected, he laid 
away his axe, and contented himself with less terrible 
measures than splitting heads. In an undertone I 
remarked to the officer, that when he should give orders 
for those barrels of liquor to go out the store, they would 
go, notwithstanding the cart at the door, and the 
loafers who blocked the passage way. 

Approaching the group crowded in the door-way, he 
said, " Gentlemen, I request you to clear that passage. 
I have a legal warrant to execute, and you may be sure 
I shall discharge my duties." 

He was told to go to a place not laid down on the 
maps. 

Turning to Allen and myself, who were awaiting 
orders, the officer bade us roll the casks of liquor for- 
ward. They came forward. 

" Now," said the officer, " I once more command you 
to clear that doorway." 

He was again told to go to , a warm climate. 

" Words are of no avail," said the officer, addressing 
his helpers, " we must act ; put those barrels into the 
street." 

We laid hold of the barrel nearest the door, Allen at 
one end of it and I at the other, and when we were 
ready to send it forward I quietly advised those in the 
passage to remove the legs which were in our way, or 
they might get hurt, when I was told to go to a place^, 



320 THREE CHEERS FOR THE LAW ! 

which, from the character of the company about me I 
had reasons to believe might not be distant. 

With that we sent that barrel with all the force we 
conld command against the obstructions, and after a 
slight recoil of the casks legs were put in motion with 
alacrity, and the doorway was cleared of loafers. There, 
however, stood the horse-cart, its rear backed as near to 
the door as possible. 

Seeing that his doughty champions had failed liim, 
Gilman seated himself in the rear of the cart, and 
thrust his feet into the doorway. After assuring him 
that he was playing a losing, and very dangerous game, 
in resisting a civil officer, 1 advised him to take his legs 
out of the way, or the weight of a barrel of rum would 
test their strength. He did not remove them, and the 
barrel was rolled directly upon them. Fortunately they 
were strong legs, and stood the strain well, but the 
weight of the cask held him firmly in his place. I 
sprang over the barrel, and seizing it by one end tip})ed 
it off those rather novel skids, greatly to his relief, and 
he concluded to make no further resistance. 

The horse and cart were removed, and the way being 
now cleared, the remaining casks soon followed the one 
which had encountered so many obstructions. 

The entire stock, fourteen barrels, were loaded on 
wagons in waiting, and preceded by the officer and his 
aids, the precious stuff was deposited in a secure place, 
to await the final adjudication of the case by the proper 
authorities. 

A knowledge of what was transpiring had spread 
rapidly through the city while we were making the 
seizure, and when the job was finished, and the teams. 



JOHN HAWKINS. 321 

loaded with liquors, were passing up the streets, it was 
evident to all that the law had triumphed, notwithstand- 
ing the weakness of the legal party, and the mothers, 
wives, and daughters of Hallowell, waving their handker- 
chiefs as we passed, cheered us on our way. This was 
my first experience of the practical working of the 
Maine Law. It had worked like a charm thus far. 

Some time elapsed before the session of the court and 
the trial of the case. After filling my appointments 
and returning to Boston, I met John Hawkins, who had 
also just returned from a tour in Maine, closing with 
labor at Hallowell. After the usual salutation, the 
faithful Washingtonian informed me, with great exulta- 
tion, that he had happened to reach Hallowell just in 
time to see the fourteen barrels of condemned liquors 
poured into the gutter, and he informed me that after 
the emptying of the first cask, he turned it on end, and 
taking his stand upon it, he addressed the crowd who 
had gathered to see the show, while the remaining 
thirteen casks were being emptied. 

'' It was," said Hawkins, " one of the happiest hours 
of my life." 

We can well believe it was a glad time for Hawkins, 
to see his old enemy, which had for so many years held 
him in a slavery worse than Egyptian, led out to execu- 
tion, and amid the cheers of its enemies, mingled with 
the contents of the sewers. 

The third day of my stay in Hallowell, officer Smith 
seized the cargo of a vessel just arrived from Boston, 
and with his former aids, and two or three other volun- 
teers, was hoisting the liquor from the vessel's hold, and 
putting it upon the wharf, when our operations were 



822 CARGOES OR PINT BOTTLES, EITHER. 

arrested by a call for a compromise. A consultation 
was had by the interested parties, and the best terms 
the friends of the law would grant to the captain of the 

(vessel, or rather the owners of the liquors, for whom 
the captain was authorized to act, was, that not a gallon 
of the cargo should be landed in the State of Maine, 
but that, putting on board what he had already landed 
on the wharf, the vessel should immediately make sail 
for Boston. This must be done, or the whole cargo 
would, after the proper legal condemnation, go. to swell 
the waters of the Kennebec. The terms were accepted, 
and those who had -shipped tlie liquors in Boston soon 
learned that the Maine Law could deal with cargoes^ as 
well as the contents of a pint bottle. 

Does the reader wonder at the great outcry against 
that law from the time it began to be enforced to this 
hour, and the unnumbered falsehoods which have been 
uttered to prove its inefficiency? Like a steam engine 
of an hundred horse-power, or a hydraulic press capable 
of pressing an inch pine board to one-eighth of that 
thickness, the Maine Law is inefficient if not used; but 
give to its enforcement a tolerably healthy public senti- 
ment, an honest purpose, and faithful officers, and it is 
glorious to see how the liquor traffic will expire under 
its pressure. 

As a further objection to the law, it has been urged 
that its successful enforcement involves to too great an 
extent the destruction of property. This was urged 
some years since, I remember, at the close of one of my 
public lectures in Worcester County, Massachusetts, 
wherein I had expressed my views of the law. An in- 
dividual rose and urged the objection above stated, and 



PROPERTY. 323 

added, very foolishly as I thought, that God's way of 
reforming human society or saving men was not to de- 
stroy that which was useful and valuable. "He, on the 
contrary," said the gentleman, " accomplished His bene- 
ficent purposes by the providential diffusion of knowledge 
and manifestations of His love." I replied that the gen- 
tleman had evidently read the history ot God's dealings 
witli men to very little purpose, or he would never have 
referred to them to prove the very high estimation in. 
which the Deity regards what we choose to call property; 
for at the Deluge, as well as by the destruction of the 
corrupt cities of the plain, according to the scriptures, 
there must have been some heavy losses of property. 
The gentleman, I added, should remember too, that when 
God miraculously rescued his people from the terrible 
exactions and oppressions of the Egyptian King, that a 
very large number of horses and chariots were destroyed 
by a very summary process, and that recent excavations 
on the former sites of Herculaneum and Pompeii gave 
evidence that a large amount of proporty, the results of 
human labor and skill, had been destroyed there^ and at 
very short, notice. 

There is no important question now agitated e>mong 
men, about which so many lies and so much unmitigated 
nonsense have been uttered, as in defence of the liquor 
traffic and the use of intoxicants. It requires more of 
Christian patience than I possess to listen to and bear 
with it all without getting sometimes religiously angry. 
To what legitimate use can the contents of an ordinary 
liquor store or dram-shop be devoted ? Some of it might 
be re-distilled and the alcohol might be employed for 
chemical or mechanical purposes ; but if this service 



324 POUR IT OUT. 

was committed to private individuals, even as agents of 
the state, the evil genii that seem ever associated with 
alcohol in its relations to man would be very likely to 
make heartless rogues and scoundrels of them. No ; the 
very best disposition that can be made of them is to 
pour them into the gutters. The moral effects of such 
an exhibition upon those wlio witness it is excellent, as 
it testifies to the worthlessness of articles which many 
have been accustomed to value quite too highly. God 
be thanked for the Maine Law ! and the grand inspira- 
tion, energy, and honest devotion to the public weal by 
which it was created ! May no backward step ever be 
taken in that noble State, which now bears the flag of 
prohibition, in the advance of our temperance host. 



CHAPTER XX. 

Will yoti come ? Yes — A Challenge — A four days Debate — The 
AVhisky Champion — A Bill of Indictment — Plausible but base- 
less — Still Debating — Parallel Cases — Shad in Connecticut River ! 
Ha, Ha — A good time — A capital arrangement — A Colloquy — 
A distiller at the front — Political Economy — Still-fed Pork — 
" Tender " — Hard Work but poor Pay. 

During the summer of 1852, while lecturing in Oneida 
County, N. Y., I received from S. F. Cary, of Cincinnati, 
a pressing invitation to perform some service in Ohio, 
during a campaign in which they were just about to 
enter. A move had been made to fix in the Constitution 
of the State, by the vote of the people, a provision that 
the Legislature should not thereafter have power to 
license the traffic in intoxicating liquors. Some weeks 
would elapse before the time of voting on the question, 
and the friends of temperance in Ohio wished to make 
a pretty thorough canvass of the stale and bring out 
the largest possible vote in favor of the proposed amend- 
ment to the constitution. Four public lecturers of New 
England had been engaged to aid in the canvass — Rev. 
B. E. Hale, of Massachusetts, and three others — and now 
they desired to add Dr. Jewett to their list of public 
speakers for the campaign. I was reluctant to leave a 
field of labor where my services were kindly appreciated 
and generously rewarded. Many years of steady labor 
at public speaking, except during the summer months^ 

(325) 



L2() WILL YGU COiME? YES. 

when audiences are gathered with difficulty, had overvi 
tasked my lungs and they had consequently become 
somewhat weakened, and I doubted whether it would be 
quite safe to engage in a campaign where I might be 
required to address large assemblies in the open air. 
My friend. Gen. Gary, however, would take no denial, 
and pressed the matter with so much urgency* and zeal, 
that I at length consented. For reasons already stated, 
I made it a condition of the engagement, however, that 
I should not be required to speak often in the open air. 
As to pecuniary reward, I informed my friend Gary that 
I should not consent to receive, besides traveling ex- 
penses, more than I :was receiving in the State of New 
York at the time I left it, which was the modest sum of 
ten dollars per lecture. 

I reached Golumbus, the capital of Ohio, at the date 
agreed upon, had an interview with some members of 
the Executive Gommittee, and went heartily to work, 
filling appointments previously made for me. While 
thus engaged, a matter was arranged at Golumbus, which, 
it will be seen, seriously concerned me, but about which 
I was not consulted. The leaders of the party who, from 
pecuniary or other motives were laboring to prevent the 
adoption of the proposed amendment to the constitution, 
had imported an advocate of their views from the State 
of New York, and challenged the Executive Committee 
of the State Temperance Society to debate with him the 
points at issue, through any individual they might venture 
to pit against him. The Gommittee, as I subsequently 
learned, after consultation with the other lecturers from 
New England, accepted the challenge for a public debate, 
to be continued through four successive days, at Golum- 



A FOUR days' debate. 327 

bus, Lancaster, Circleville, and Cliillicothe, and decided 
to rely upon me to sustain, in the debate, the views and 
measures of the temperance party. I was directed to 
come at once to the Capital, and not until reaching the 
city the night before the contemplated encounter, did I 
learn of the arrangement. Nowise reluctant to debate, 
at any time and with any party, the soundness of views 
I had long held and publicly advocated, I was not quite 
pleased with some of the arrangements. For example : 
no measures had been taken to secure a full report of the 
debate and its subsequent publication, that the citizens 
of Ohio, who could not be present might read, if they 
could not hear, the argument on both sides of the ques- 
tion. I urged tlie importance of such a measure upon 
the Committee, assuring them that, if it were not 
adopted, the friends of the liquor traffic, one of whom 
can generally make more noise than half-a-dozen tempe- 
rance men, would proclaim a decided victory for their 
champion, no matter what the result might be in the 
estimation of candid men present. It was, however, too 
late to mend the programme, and the debate proceeded 
according to previous arrangement. 

My opponent, though a man of little general informa- 
tion and still less knowledge of science, possessed a 
good deal of that tact and assurance so useful to a 
fourth-rate lawyer before a country justice of limited 
legal attainments and a crowd of honest but credulous 
people, not qualified or disposed to be critical. He was 
thoroughly versed in the art of defending the liquor sys- 
tem by scriptural arguments, and could quote Paul's ad- 
vice to Timothy as accurately and aptly as any of our 
few wine-drinking doctors of divinity. Some of his 



828 ' THE WHISKY CHAMPION. 

views of scripture truth, however, were not far removed, 
in point of absurdity, from those of the poor fellow who, 
attempting to show that nearly all the good men men- 
tioned in the Bible drank, insisted that " even Zadoc the 
Priest took a horn." 

Ere the hour fixed upon for the commencement of the 
debate had arrived, a large crowd of citizens had as- 
sembled around the platform, which had been erected in 
the open air, and a glance over the upturned faces of 
the throng was not calculated to lessen one's hatred of 
the liquor traffic, or of habits which could so inflame, 
disfigure, and brutalize the human face Divine. Not 
often is the temperance advocate called to face such a 
crowd, for, alas ! hard drinkers generally keep as far 
from the public teacher and reformatory influences as 
possible. Deluded by the " mocker" and the miserable 
sophistries by which its use is generally defended, and 
zealous in the support of the Diana they had so long 
and devoutly worshiped, they had gathered to listen to 
the defense, by their champion, of the system which, 
beside its other manifold mischievous results, was ruin- 
ing themselves, body, soul, and estate. Reader, do you 
wonder that, seeing in the crowd before me many such 
poor deluded men, I silently but earnestly prayed that 
God would enable me to utter there some truths which 
might be blessed to their instruction and rescue from an 
impending and terrible doom. 

The question to be debated, though I may not state it 
in the precise words employed in arranging for the dis- 
cussion, was substantially this : " May the State of 
Ohio, in accordance with its own constitution, the con- 
stitution of the United States, and the eternal principles 



A BILL OF INDICTMENT. 329 

of right and justice, prohibit entirely the manufacture 
and traffic in intoxicating liquors?" In opening for 
the affirmative, I employed the time allotted me in pre- 
senting the grounds on which we claimed for tlie state 
llie right disputed. I affirmed that the traffic had re- 
sulted, not only in the personal ruin of thousands of its 
citizens, deeply afflicting, meanwhile, their families and 
connections, but that it had, at the same time, been 
waging perpetual war on all public interests, sanitary, 
social, moral, educational, material, and governmental, 
and that, while doing all this mischief, it benefited per- 
manently nobody ; for there was, I asserted, abundant 
proof that a large percentage of those engaged in the 
manufacture and sale of liquors were personally ruined 
in health and morals by the evil influences c f their own 
business, or suffered from the ruin, thereby, of some 
members of their families. Having thus presented, as 
■well as I was able in a single hour, a bill of indictment 
against the liquor system generally, 1 rested the case, 
for the time, and yielded the floor to my opponent. It 
is but just to say, that from the crowd around the stand, 
made up, as it was in part, of dealers in and drinkers- 
of whisky, I received no insults or interruption, but was 
listened to with that respectful attention with whicli true 
American citizens should ever listen to public addresses, 
oven when they do not at all accept the doctrines or ap- 
prove the sentiments of the speaker. 

The reply of my opponent, though having but a feeble 
foundation, certainly possessed the charm of novelty, 
and was presented with considerable force and with evi- 
dent sincerity. I doubt if a suspicion had ever entered 
his mind, that it was utterly fallacious. 



ddU PLAUSIBLE BUT BASELESS. 

He called attention to the fact, that in the creation of 
living beings, in almost endless varieties of form, size, 
and structure, to inhabit every zone from the equator to 
the arctic, and with habits and modes of life varying 
almost to infinity, God had established, in relation to 
their means of subsistence, one law, and that was that 
they choose, through the aid of an instinct which he 
had implanted, their own diet and drink. 

Was it to be supposed, he asked, that man, the para- 
gon of animals, the lord of all inferior races, and made 
but a little lower than the angels, was less capable of 
choosing his own diet and drink than the cattle of the 
hills, the winged races, the crawling reptiles, or even the 
tiny insect that sports its little day of life in the air 
around us ? The supposition, he said, could not be in- 
dulged for one moment. He further urged that this 
right of choosing their own diet and drinks was so sacred 
that even the Creator and Eternal Law.-Giver had never 
interfered with it, and " here we have," said he, " in 
these prohibitory laws, an attempt by our poor imperfect 
human law makers, to do what God himself has never 
done — to regulate the diet' and drink of man." Of 
course, I cannot pretend that I give the exact words of 
the speaker. My language may be better or worse than 
his, but those were his leading ideas. 

In reply, I admitted the truth of the gentleman's 
statement, so far as the lower orders of animals are con- 
cerned, but urged tliat the fact had no bearing on the 
matter under discussion ; that in his treatment of man, 
the Creator had certainly made him an exception to the 
rule stated, if we were to believe the Bible, for, accord- 
ing to that, one of the earliest, if not the very first com- 



STILL DEBATING. 661 

mancl given to man in Eden, was a restriction on his 
diet, forbidding him, on pain of death, to eat of the fruit 
of a certain tree of the garden. Furthermore, I called 
attention to the fact, that under the Mosaic economy- 
very precise directions were given for the regulation of 
the diet. Of the flesh of certain animals the people 
were permitted to eat, of the flesh of others they were 
forbidden to eat. What, I then asked, became of the 
gentleman's assertion that the right of 7ncm, as well as 
of all other animals, to choose his own diet, was so 
sacred that the Creator had never interfered with it ? 

It is not my purpose to attempt even an abstract of 
tlie four days debate, especially after the lapse of eigh- 
teen years. So far as it was strictly relevant to the 
question at issue, there were no points presented on 
either side except the novel but baseless one already re- 
ported, with which my fellow-laborers are not familiar. 
They have often listened to the stereotyped objections 
of the liquor party to restrictive or prohibitory legisla- 
tion, and many of them, doubtless, have often answered 
them quite as well as I did, as they were successively 
presented by my opponent on the occasion referred to. 

To his assertion, that the legislature of Ohio had no 
constitutional right to prohibit the traffic, I replied by 
quoting the unanimous decision of the Supreme Court 
of the United States, rendered five years previous, and 
suggested, very respectfully of course, that the aggregate 
wisdom of our Supreme Court was probably quite equal 
to that of the gentleman from New York. 

My opponent, though evidently a man of kindly dis- 
position, and rarely resorting to offensive personalities, 
and never to the employment of the bilHngsgate in 



332 PARALLEL CASES. 

which advocates of the liquor traffic are wont to indulge, 
manifested, as might have been expected, an utter want 
of candor in refusing to admit an error when fairly con- 
victed of one, or yielding a point when fairly turned 
against him. In such cases he would dodge the point 
where his position had proved untenable, seeming to for- 
get that he had made it, and drive at some other point 
as remote from it as possible. As an illustration of his 
method in such cases, take the following. It occurred 
in our debate at Chillicothe. 

He asserted distinctly and repeatedly that in the his- 
tory of legislation on this continent, there was no paral- 
lel to that provision of the Maine law which protects a 
man in the possession of liquors as a valuable property, 
while in his own dwelling, but confiscates and destroys 
them if found in his store as articles of merchandise — 
condemning and destroying to-day what it protected as 
a valuable possession yesterday, because the location of 
the property had been changed or surrounding circum- 
stances slightly altered. With a show of entire confi- 
dence in the truth of his statement, he challenged me 
to point to any specimen of legislation equally absurd, 
as he proclaimed it. 

During the next half-hour the floor was mine, and I 
proceeded at once to answer his urgent call for cases 
parallel to the one he had chosen to condemn, as an 
anomaly in the history of legislation. I cited the laws 
then existing regulating the taking of fish from the Con- 
necticut river, where the boats, seines, and other tackle 
of the fisherman, which might be lawfully used on cer- 
tain days of the week, are forbidden to be used for the 
same purposes on other specified days — protected as a 



SHAD IN CONNECTICUT RIVER. HA ! HA ! 333 

valuable possession up to the stroke of twelve on Tues- 
day night, say, but if found in use on the river an hour 
later by the officers of the law or others disposed to com- 
plain of the otfence, confiscated and destroyed- 

I cited the law concerning the possession of cards or 
other gaming apparatus, which a man might legally use 
in his own dwelling for the amusement of his children 
or friends, but found in his store, employed in gaming, 
are forfeited or destroyed. I referred, also, to the fact, 
that a gentleman might, if he chose, import from Europe 
or elsewhere a valuable horse, and that our laws would 
defend his right to the property, even on mid-ocean, or 
wherever the vessel might float under our flag, not only 
against the fraudulant claim of an individual, but against 
that of a nation if need be ; and yet, by the laws of my 
native state, that very horse would, after reaching our 
shores, be confiscated and lost to its owner, if found on 
a race-course and running for a wager. 

Who now would venture to say that the cases cited 
were not in point and did not fully meet the gentleman's 
demand ? What could a candid man in his. position do 
but to admit that he had been mistaken on that particu- 
lar point, that he had not been aware of the existence 
of the laws referred to — or still to deny their existence 
and call for the proof. My opponent did neither. He 
rose with an expression of unabated confidence, I might 
almost say of exultation, which was instantly answered 
by a broad and sympathetic grin on every whisky- 
bloated face before him, and said, 

" Mr. Chairman, and citizens of Ohio, the gentleman 
who has just taken his seat, has given us a full half-hour's 
instruction in relation to horse-racing, gambling, and 
shad in the Connecticut river! " 



334 A GOOD TIME. 

This called forth from the whisky element in the 
crowd a shout of derisive laughter, and after pausing a 
moment to enjoy this manifestation of sympathy, and 
joy at his assumed triumph, he proceeded, " but what 
has all that to do with the question, whether the people 
of Ohio are to be deprived of their inalienable rights by 
oppressive and infamous laws, dictated by a set of cold 
water fanatics." From this he went on, without another 
word of reference to the point from which he had been 
driven by incontrovertible facts, to multiply points 
equally untenable, with an assurance almost sublime. 

What possible profit can come of a public debate con- 
ducted on one side in such a style ? As I had anticipated, 
and as a matter of course, the liquor party, who from 
long practice, have become expert in misrepresentation, 
telegraphed over the country that in the four days 
debate in Ohio on the liquor laws the temperance party 
had been terribly discomfited. 

The excitement and fatigue incident to that debate 
which, as has already been stated, continued through 
four days, on three of which it was held in the open air, 
was a severe tax on my powers of endurance, consider- 
ing the state of my health at the time, especially as it 
was preceded and followed by a public service at some 
point daily. My labor during the entire campaign, which 
occupied nearly eight weeks from my arrival at Columbus, 
was unintermitted, and contrary to the conditions of my 
engagement ; not less than twelve or fifteen of my dis- 
courses were delivered in the open air. Notwithstanding 
the severity of the labor, the tour through the state, and 
the daily contact with earnest friends of the cause, 
afforded me much pleasure. At one point especially, I 



A CAPITAL ARRANGEMENT. 835 

enjoyed my work so well, that I love to recall the par- 
ticulars. Some varieties of food skillfully prepared, and 
delicious when first served, are still excellent when 
warmed up for a second repast. 

It was at Cincinnati that the circumstances surround- 
ing me, created in a large measure by the practical wis- 
dom and tact of the local committee of arrangements, 
secured me a rare opportunity for pleading the cause of 
temperance with the people, such as I have seldom 
enjoyed during my thirty years of public service. They 
obtained leave of the city authorities, to erect, at the 
junction of Fifth street and Market square, if I rightly 
remember, a platform from which I might address the 
people for a number of successive evenings, which were 
then pleasant. The platform was raised about four feet 
from the ground or pavement, and its supporting posts 
at each corner extended some six or eight feet higher. 
Nailed to the sides of these posts, at a proper distance 
above the platform, were small cross-pieces extending 
therefrom each way two or three feet, and on these very 
many gentlemen suspended their lanterns which they 
must have brought from home for that special purpose, 
as the principal streets being lighted, lanterns would 
hardly be needed on a pleasant evening except in trav- 
ersing some narrow and unlighted streets. Each of the 
four posts of the platform was thus rendered a grand 
chandelier, and the street was lighted far better than 
are some of our public halls when in use. Around that 
platform Avere gathered for a number of evenings a 
crowd consisting entirely of male citizens of all ages, 
from ten to eighty years, and a more orderly crowd 
of equal numbers I never saw. Except an occasional 



336 A COLLOQUY. 

clapping of hands, or an approving exclamation when 
some point made by the speaker gave special pleasure to 
a portion of the audience, there were no noisy demon- 
strations, but a patient, respectful attention to the views 
advanced. Just here I would earnestly recommend to 
our friends of the cities a similar arrangement for the 
instruction of the people in reference to this great prac- 
tical question. With the laboring men of our cities, and 
during the warm season of the year, the evening is gen- 
erally a time of leisure, and if that season be chosen, 
when the evenings are usually pleasant, and the plan of 
our Cincinnati friends be adopted for lighting the locality 
of the meeting, it will leave those who would speak to 
tlie people little to desire in the way of opportunity. 
The thorough lighting of the space for a wide distance 
around the platform, is essential to success, because 
lliose inclined from any cause to disturb the meeting 
v-;ll not venture to do so when a glare of light reveals 
11 ic offender to those around him. 

After developing my views of the subject for several 
evenings, I decided to devote the concluding service to 
replies, from the platform, to questions from the crowd 
relative to any phase of the subject concerning which 
they might desire my opinions, and to answering, as far 
as I might be able, any objections to the doctrines ad- 
N^anced during the preceding evenings. I was so well 
pleased with the result of that experiment, that I have 
pursued a similar course very many times since at the 
conclusion of a series of lectures in churches, public 
halls, and wlierever the people had gathered to hear. 
But we will, in thought, return to Cincinnati, and the 
throng around that platform. Fearing that there might 



A COLLOQUY. .337 

be some hesitation at first, in presenting objections by 
those who honestly entertained them, I had arranged 
with some of our most devoted and influential brethren, 
to mingle with the crowd at points some distance from 
the stand, and when I should invite questions, to have 
in mind some popular objection of the liquor advocates, 
and with great earnestness launch it at me at once and 
thus set the ball in motion. The arrangement worked 
like a charm, and for an hour and a half at least, I was 
constantly and pleasantly employed in answering objec- 
tions to the doctrines, plans, and measures of the tem- 
perance party. In doing this I was careful in all cases 
to treat the objector or questioner with all possible 
respect as an honest seeker after truth, as doubtless 
many were, avoiding whatever might give needless 
oifense ; for nay aim was to convert men to correct views 
of a great practical question, rather than any momentary 
triumph over those who might seem, for the time, to be 
ranging themselves with -our opposition. Invariably I 
would pause at the conclusion of every answer or ex- 
planation and ask, " Is my answer to that question satis- 
factory to my countrymen around me ? If so, I wiU 
attend to the next objection, if others shall be presented.'* 
At length an individual, mighty in avoirdupois, who was 
standing in the doorway of a house across the street, 
bawled out in a very excited voice and manner, that I 
had uttered from the platform a statement absolutely 
untrue concerning a very important interest of Ohio. 
While he was speaking, a friend standing by my side, 
remarked to me in an undertone, that the person I had 
now to deal with was one of the great distillers of the 

citv. ' 

15 



338 A DISTILLER AT THE FRONT. 

" Keep shady," said I, " I must seem not to know his 
Yocation, and shall gain an immense advantage by so 
doing." I invited him to specify the false statement, 
when the following colloquy substantially occurred. I 
cannot of course be certain that I give the precise words 
but will report it as nearly as possible, after the lapse 
of eighteen years. A frequent reference to the affair 
since, in conversation with friends, has helped to keep 
the matter fresh in my memory, for the story was too 
good to spoil by close keeping. 

DiST. " You stated that the manufacture and sale of intoxicating 
liquors, works great mischief to the State of Ohio, which no one 
will deny, but you also stated that no corresponding advantages 
result, which is not true, for many millions of gallons of whisky 
are annually exported from the state, adding greatly to its 
wealth" 

Dr. J. " Sir, you are mistaken. Private individuals may add to 
their wealth by the liquor business, but the State does not." 

DiST. " That is quite a new notion in political economy, that you 
can increase the wealth of the individual citizens of a state, without 
adding to the wealth of the state." 

Dr. J. " New as it may be to you, sir, it is yet true. When Mr. 
A. picks the pocket of Mr. B. he is the richer by the contents of the 
pocket-book, but nothing is added thereby to the wealth of the 
state." 

[Just here comes a loud shout from the listening throng, which 
for a moment somewhat disconcerted the distiller, but he soon ral- 
lied and proceeded thus :] 

DiST. " We were not talking of theft or of other crimes, but of 
legitimate and honorable business." 

Dr. J. " Well, sir, by the business of manufacturing and selling 
intoxicating liquors, men do accumulate wealth, and therefore pay 
heavier taxes for the support of the state government, but mean- 
while thousands are made so poor by that same traffic, that they 
pay little or no tax at all, and thus the state is a loser rather than a 



POLITICAL ECONOMY. 339 

gainer by the entire liquor business, even in a money point of view 
— not to speak just here of its immense loss in the health, happi- 
less, and morals of its people. 

" But I wish to call your attention, sir, and that of the crowd 
around us, to another point, which perhaps you have not considered. 
Pork is one of the great staples of Ohio, and the state exports an 
immense amount annually, five-sixths of which, I am informed, is 
corn-fed, produced by the farmers of the state, while one-sixth is 
still-fed pork, of an inferior quality. This gets so mixed with the 
farmer's pork, while passing to the great markets of the country, 
that it cannot be distinguished until it reaches the consumer. That 
fact being well known, depreciates the value of western pork in 
the aggregate, often three or four dollars on the barrel below the 
price of pork produced and packed in the eastern states. Thus the 
farmers of Ohio are losers to an immense amount, that the distillers 
may sell, above its real value, their miserable still-fed pork. That, 
sir, is one of the ways in which Ohio is enriched by the liquor 
busin^ess." 

[Here came another shout from the listening throng, but the vet- 
eran distiller still stood his ground, and made another point thus.] 

DiST. '• That is but one-half the truth, the other half is, that the 
smoked meats produced by the distillers bring up the price of the 
entire aggregate exported, as they are a better article, and are pre- 
ferred in the markets." 

Dr. J. " Why are they preferred ? " 

DiST. " It is no use denying it, the fact is notorious." 

Dr. J. " I have not disputed the fact. I only wish to know loJiy 
they are preferred, that is all." 

DisT. " It is no use to quibble about the matter. Meet the fact, 
and dispose of it if you, can." 

[He seamed to suspect that I might make some bad use of any 
explanation he might make of the fact stated, and sought to avoid 
it, but I still thrust the question upon him.] 

Dh. J. " Why are the smoked meats of the still-fed swine consid- 
ered more valuable," until at last he responded. 

DisT. " Well, sir, if you must know, I believe it is because the 
meats are more tender." 

Dr. J. " Aye ' That is it ! Please notice that fact, citizens of 



840 STILL-FED PORK — " TENDER." 

Oliio. The smoked meats of tlie distillers are ' more tender ' tlian 
those produced by the farmers. I will now explain to you why they 
are more tender. Causes which lessen the vitality of an animal 
during life, hasten its decomposition after death. Some diseases of 
a low type produce such changes in the solid structure of the human 
body, that parts here and there lose their vitality, run into a state 
of decomposition, and slough off, while the patient yet lives. Now, 
still-slops form an imperfect diet for animals, for although you can, 
by their use, load an animal with adipose or fat, as you may a man 
by the use of whisky, yet the tissues of the whole body have but a 
low degree of vitality, and are at the very verge of decomposition 
before the butcher endi the life of the animal. No wonder that the 
flesh of such animals even when cured for the market, is tender. 
Let those who fancy such tenderness enjoy it. For one I prefer 
hams from the corn-fed pork, though the fibres be a little less 
tender." 

[The colloquy was here interrupted by a ,peal of laughter from 
the crowd, and our friend the distiller, lost for the moment his good 
nature, and declared, with a moderate explosive, my statement un- 
founded, or at best an exaggeration.] 

Dr. J. " Hold on, sir," I replied. <• You declare my statement 
false. Listen a moment to another, and deny it if you dare in the 
presence of this crowd, who are doubtless acquainted with the facts. 
A man accustomed to that business, is sent daily through those large 
enclosures where swine are fed in connection with the great distil- 
leries around this city, to examine the swine in every pen, and when 
he finds one with a scratch or wound upon him, as often happens, 
he is at once withdrawn from the pen and sent to the butcher, and 
why ? Because, sir, it is well known by all concerned, that wounds 
on still-fed hogs do not heal." 

The Distiller here broke down and quit the field, and 
it would have done the reader good to have heard the 
shouts and roars of laughter that went up from that 
crowd as he withdrew from a contest which he had him- 
self provoked. 

While serving the cause in Ohio I occasionally called 



HARD WORK — POOR PAY. 341 

on the Committee for funds needed to pay traveling 
expenses, and to transmit to my family. It was fm^- 
nished me. Of course I could not present a bill for my 
scrvicies until my work was ended, and I felt no anxiety 
about the matter, supposing that I was dealing with 
honorable men, amply able to discharge any obligations 
they might incur. When, at the close of my labor, I 
did present my bill, giving credit, of course, for what 
had been already paid, I was informed that the treasury 
was just then exhausted, but that funds would be forth- 
coming, presently, from local organizations which had 
pledged certain amounts toward the fund for the cam- 
paign. As I was to return immediately to my family, 
it was arranged that the balance due, $160, should be 
sent me in a draft as soon as possible. 

Not one cent of it has been received to this day ! 

Of course I had nothing to do with the local organi- 
zations of Ohio, and their pledges to support the move- 
ment. My engagement had been with a committee. 
They failed to discharge their obligations, and I suffered 
loss, my wife and a family of dependent children sharing 
it with me. I had this, however, to comfort me. The 
wrong attached to others, the lesser evil of suffering, 
only, was mine. 

After that campaign in Ohio, I was unable for years 
to labor continuously in the way of public lecturing, for 
although otherwise in tolerable health, I could speak but 
for a few evenings in succession, before my lungs would 
fail me. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

Westward lio ! — On the Prairies — A Thanksgiving extemporized- — 
AVhisky and the Indians — Life on the Farm. 

The ordinary rewards of such limited service as I was 
able to render by public lecturing, being quite insuffi- 
cient properly to support my family, consisting at the 
time, of five sons and two daughters, beside the parent 
pair, I resolved to remove to the west, where, on a new 
and fertile soil, my boys could aid me in securing for the 
family the necessaries of life, expecting, of course, to 
lack some of the comforts and social advantages which 
we had enjoyed in older communities. I sold my little 
farm in Millbury, settled up my affairs and found myself 
possessed of about eighteen hundred dollars with which 
to transport my family a thousand miles or more, and 
on some new field start anew in the journey of life. I 
spent one year in Batavia, Illinois, one of the most 
delightful villages in the northern portion of that state ; 
and so long as memory remains to me I shall never for- 
get, or cease to be grateful for the great kindness of its 
people. Of course while with them I did what I could 
as a private citizen to advance the interests of the tem- 
perance cause. 

As I had often heard or read glowing accounts of the 
excellent soil and climate of Minnesota, where lands 
could be obtained at government prices, I visited the 
territory in the spring of 1855, and with my eldest son, 

(342) 



ON THE PRAIRIES. 343 

who had attained Ms majority, stuck our " claim stakes" 
on the prairies a couple of miles from what is now the 
thriving town of Faribault. My wife, daughters, and 
youngest son I had left in Illinois. 

As two of the family could, at that time, claim lands 
under the laws of our government, we secured a quarter 
section, an hundred and sixty acres each, of excellent 
prairie, and my second son coming of age in a few weeks 
after we reached Minnesota, took a claim in the timber 
near by as soon as he could legally do so, and erecting 
our tents and securing teams and the needful tools, we 
set to work with stout hearts, strong hopes, and Yankee 
self-reliance, to make us homes on the prairies, where 
Sioux Indians, and prairie-wolves had held undisputed 
possession since — when ? I do not know. 

We succeeded, and I succeeded in another direction, 
— in soon using up my limited stock of funds in the 
work of breaking up and fencing our lands and erecting 
a plain, but not very, cheap dwelling, with needful gran- 
aries, cattle-sheds, and in getting pretty deeply in debt. 
Nevertheless, we looked for " the good time coming," 
and toiled on, paying a pretty stout interest on a few 
hundred dollars for years. How soon interest money 
becomes due ! I doubt if time ever seems so short, ex- 
cept to lovers tete-a-tete, or to those sentenced to be 
hanged, shot, or decapitated, as it does to men having 
notes coming due at twenty per cent, interest. Weeks 
and months fly with the speed of wild pigeons. How 
lieavily that debt bore upon us for years, none can know 
v\'ho have never been in debt, while so far west that of 
two bushels of grain the value of one is required to send 
the other to the great markets. 



344 A THANKSGIVING EXTEMPORIZED. 

It is doubtful whether, even with the constant labor 
of the whole family, and the exercise of the most rigi(3 
economy, we should ever have been able, while paying 
such heavy interest, to have lifted the mortgage from 
my prairie farm, had it not been for the timely and effi- 
cient aid of two generous friends. Returning to my 
home one evening, some years after our settlement in 
Minnesota, and in fact after our removal from the state, 
though we still retained our property interests there, 
some member of my family, all of whom I noticed 
seemed remarkably cheerful, just then placed in my 
hands a very kind letter from Mr. John B. Gough, en- 
closing a check for five hundred dollars. Some of my 
readers will never be M.Q fully to appreciate our feelings 
on the reception of that gift, for they "were never poor, 
and in debt. Some others, with a different experience, 
can understand them. 

We liad scarcely had time for mutual congratulations 
all round, and for wiping a few stray tears, when one 
of my lads, just returned from the Post Office, handed 
me a letter from my son Richard, then in Boston, con- 
veying to us intelligence of the gift of another five 
hundred, from an excellent friend of mine in Massachu- 
setts ; L. M. Sargent, Esq. 

Reader, we did not wait for a " proclamation by the 
Governor," but got up a family Thanksgiving directly, 
which was none the less hearty because less formal. 

To one of my generous benefactors I can no more, in 
the flesh, express my thanks ; he has gone to his reward 
with the benediction of thousands whose homes and 
lives were made the happier for his sojourn on this earth, 
and his noble efforts for the improvement and elevation 



WHISKY, AND THE INDIANS. 345 

of men. To the other, who still lives and labors in the 
same grand enterprise, my thanks are hereby publicly 
renewed. 

While residing in Minnesota, I bad frequent opportu- 
nities to learn from actual observation how much whis- 
ky can do to improve the character and conduct of that 
amiable race of beings, the Sioux Indians. In view of 
all I have seen and heard of the consequences of fur- 
nishing ■ intoxicating liquors to the untamed savages in 
their own wretched and forever shifting homes, or on 
the borders of civilization, I here give it as my deliber- 
ate opinion, that wherever a scoundrel is found engaged 
in that business, he should be hitched up by the neck to 
the nearest tree able to bear him, or, if more convenient, 
shot in his tracks. 

The results of the liquor traffic are terrible, almost 
beyond the power of words to express, even in civilized 
communities, where the most helpless class of sufferers 
therefrom, the mothers, wives, and children of drunkards, 
are, to some extent, protected by law and Christian 
neighbors, from extreme violence ; but think, dear 
reader, what must be the influence of that traffic upon 
the inmates of the " tepee," or frail tent of the Indian ; 
to have a veritable savage come to his home drunk, with 
a loaded gun upon his shoulder, and a huge knife in his 
belt, to drive thence, if so his insane fary shall direct, 
wife and children, poorly clad, among the piled snows 
of a northern winter, when the thermometer ranges 
perhaps between twenty and thirty degrees below zero ! 
And all this for the miserable profits on the sale of a 
quart of whisky ! In view of injustice and wrong far 
less than is involved in such affairs, a man may " be 
angry and sin not." 



846 LIFE ON THE FARM. 

As the incidents of my life on the prairies have no 
direct bearing on the progress of the temperance reform 
except as they contributed to strengthen my lungs for 
its further advocacy in after years, I shall not pause to 
narrate them. Lest, however, the reader should con- 
clude that while engaged in agricultural pursuits, of 
which I am exceedingly fond, I forgot the temperance 
cause, I w^ill say that as my worn luiigs gained strength, 
I occasionally employed them in assailing the liquor 
system, and urging on the citizens of Faribault, and 
neighboring towns, the practice of total abstinence. 
Another fact I will simply allude to. in passing, that I 
found time, even amid the hurry and worry of pioneer 
life, to read the temperance papers. Believing that my 
public labors as an advocate of temperance were ended, 
except perhaps in my immediate neighborhood, I could 
not be content to remain in ignorance of the state of 
the enterprise, and so the temperance papers found me 
there. Some of them find every man who is able to 
have two coats and three meals per day, and who has at 
the same time any tolerable appreciation of the impor- 
tance of the temperance reform to all the great interests 
of human society. 

While on a visit to the East, during my residence in 
Minnesota, I was describing to a listening group, the 
depth and fertility of the soil on my prairie farm, when 
one of the listeners, being of a speculative turn of mind, 
enquired if it would not be an excellent soil for the cul- 
tivation of tobacco. I told him I presumed it would, 
but that I would see every acre of my quarter section 
sunk so deep that a lake should occupy its place before 



LIFE ON THE FARM. 347 

one acre of that splendid soil should, with my consent, 
be used to supply with a filthy and poisonous weed, the 
depraved appetites of men, and to abet the nuisance 
of tobacco-smoke, cigar-stumps, and stale quids ! He 
seemed quite astonished at my respect for a principle, 
to the neglect of — the profits. 



CHAPTER XXII, 

Return to New England — Organization and Finance — Instruction 
the Great Want — Sensation versus Education — Wliat Might have 
been — Poverty and its results — Mistakes of Good Men — Why is 
it permitted ? — A " New Departure " Suggested — Will you attend 
to it, Sir? 

In the year 1858 I received from the Executive Com- 
mittee of the Massachusetts Temperance Alliance an 
invitation to enter their service. I accepted the invita- 
tion, and not without reluctance left a home and a peo- 
ple endeared to me by many associations, for my former 
field of labor. 

I v/ish I could truthfully say that I found the temper- 
ance cause in a better condition in Massachusetts, than 
when I left for the west, five years previous. Much had 
been done, and well done, by earnest friends of reform, 
but their efforts had failed to secure two important re- 
sults, — the thorough organization of our forces, and the 
thorough ov progressive education of the people in those 
important truths which the progress of the enterprise 
had developed. As to the first mentioned object, it is a 
sad fact that in more than half the towns of the state 
no local temperance organization existed in 1858. The 
Executive Committee of the Alliance were aware of the 
fact stated, and were troubled with some anxieties on 
account of it. One member of it, Mr. H. D. Gushing, 
in his correspondence with me inviting my return to the 
state, called my attention to the fact, and requested me 

(348) 



RETURN TO NEW ENGLAND. 349 

to make it the subject of special thought while preparing 
to enter anew my old field of labor. I did so, and im- 
mediately after reaching Boston I prepared a form of 
constitution for local societies, embodying such provis- 
ions, and such only, as I had come to regard as essen- 
tial to efficiency and continued existence. My form was 
printed, and pretty widely distributed, and for some 
months I urged the friends of temperance where no or- 
ganization of any kind existed, or where existing ones 
embraced but a part of the total abstainers in its local- 
ity, to organize at once — either under the form I had 
prepared, or some better one, if such could be produced. 
It was in yain. I was grieved to find that even my 
fellow laborers in the lecture field did not sympathize 
with my views, and were disinclined to attempt so formid- 
able a task. I reluctantly abandoned the effort, believ- 
ing then, as I now do, that time and successive failures 
to carry the enemy's works with our present regiments, 
will convert my brethren pretty generally to the neces- 
sity of multiplying them, and embodying in them all 
our available force. 

A serious objection often made to tlie form 1 had pre- 
pared for local societies, was, that it contained a provis- 
ion for a paying membership ! Just as sensible would 
be an objection to any tax on the citizen for the support 
of government, or the general education of the people — 
or to the plan of a campaign in time of war which em- 
braced no commissary department. It is not creditable 
to the intelligence and forethought of the friends of tem- 
perance anywhere, if they fail to see the necessity of 
some sensible provision for obtaining from the rank and 
file of our own force, the means of its own financial 



350 ORGANIZATION AND FINANCE. 

support,— its enlightenment, enlargement, and perpetu- 
ity. Such a provision next to the pledge and practice 
of abstinence, constitutes the very life-blood of the Tem- 
perance Orders ; without it they could not exist a twelve- 
month. Thoroughly impressed as I was with the im- 
portance of the truths stated, the reader can judge of my 
feelings, when I have found my form of organization 
employed with that essential feature stricken out. 

And yet, where such things have happened, I did not 
swear — nor call my brethren fools — nor commit suicide — 
nor do any other desperate thing ; but I saw in such oc- 
currences no foreshadowing of a temperance millenium. 
Until the power of speech fails me, and my palsied fin- 
gers can no longer guide a pen, I shall continue to 
ring in the ears, and place before the eyes of my fellow 
laborers a conviction long since formed, and which I 
have often pressed on their attention, that every attempt 
to crush the entire liquor system in any state, until the 
great mass of those who believe in and practice absti- 
nence, are banded together, and accustomed to work 
together in local organizations, will prove like the labor 
of Sisyphus, toiling eternally to roll up-hill a huge stone, 
only to have it roll back upon him the instant his fa- 
tigued muscles were relaxed. Zeal and devotion are 
utterly vain in any cause, where the essential conditions 
of success are not complied with. Unorganized masses 
of men, however excellent they may be personally, are 
of small account in a battle. But one citizen, who did 
not belong to some military organization, fought with 
the Union forces at Gettysburg. 

It was painfully apparent to me, on my return to 
Massachusetts, that the efforts of those interested and 



INSTRUCTION THE GREAT WANT. 361 

active in the temperance cause were sadly defective in 
another particular. No adequate means had been pro- 
vided for such a presentation of reformatory truths to 
the people as would command the attention and respect 
of the educated and influential classes of society. I 
urged, therefore, that means must be had to put into 
the field additional agencies which would supply what 
was deficient. It was evident to me, that one of the 
agents of the society should be a first-class man of the 
clerical profession, who would be welcome to the most 
influential pulpits of the state — as were Dr. Justin Ed- 
wards, and the Rev. Dr. Hewitt, in their day. Such a 
servant of the Alliance could, in a town or village where 
were two or three churches, occupy the pulpit of one in 
the morning, of another in the afternoon, and of a third 
one in the evening, if a third existed. Thus, by his 
public labor and his intimate relation to his professional 
brethren, he would contribute to identify our work as 
closely as possible with the permanent religious institu- " 
tions of the state — as is the work of the Bible and Tract 
Societies. After resting a day or two from the fatigue 
of his severe Sabbath labor, our clerical agent could fill 
other appointments during the remainder of the week. 
It seemed as clear that another of its agents should be 
of the legal profession, whose reputation for ability 
would draw full houses, and who could instruct the peo- 
ple in his discourses, on the legal phases of the question, 
and who could give the friends of the cause, in private 
conferences, safe counsel in relation to any legal meas- 
ures in process or contemplated, for the restraint or 
suppression of the liquor trafiic in the places he might 
visit. Still another, it was quite evident, should be of 



<)U"Z SENSATION VERSUS EDUCATION. 

the medical profession, qualified to instruct the people 
in regard to those truths of natural science which lie at 
the basis of the enterprise. 

In the absence of some one better qualified, I proposed 
to undertake that service myself. 

I failed altogether to impress the officers of the Alli- 
ance with the importance of my suggestions in relation 
to the character of those they would send forth as pub- 
lic teachers, and beside myself and their former and 
faithful agent, Edwin Thompson, they put into the lecture 
field two recently reformed men, whose labors were more 
sensational than educational. Both of them have since 
been inmates of inebriate asylums. What was most 
needed at the time in that state, was, to call out to our 
meetings and identify with us in our work, the educated 
and strong men of the state, — those who give character 
and influence to every movement with which they are 
connected. Many thousands of such, men were living 
in Massachusetts in the year 1858, who had been active 
in the cause formerly, but who for various reasons were 
so no longer, although they still retained the old hatred 
to the liquor traffic and all its supports. We needed 
greatly the aid and cooperation of sucii men. It could 
only be secured by measures which would commend 
themselves to their judgment and notions of propriety. 
Let it suffice to state, that they were not won to our 
support by the agencies employed. 

If in the retrospect the friends of temperance in 
Massachusetts cannot detect a sufiicient amount of 
blundering in our operations to account for the success- 
ful introduction of half a score of giant breweries 
among them, and the disgraceful vacillations of their 



WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN. c53 

Legislature for a few years past, there is no hope for 
them. 

Many earnest friends tell us that breweries have been 
introduced and our legislation is unsatisfactory because 
our friends have not carried their principles to the polls 
as they ought, and the suggestion is undoubtedly true ; 
but ivliy do they fail in reference to that particular noiu 
njore than formerly ? When the question of license or 
proliibition depended in each county on the character 
and action of three public officers, the County Commis- 
sioners, did our friends fail us then ? I trow not. If, as 
happened in certain counties, the regular nominees of 
neither party could be trusted, they called temperance 
conventions, nominated true men, and elected them over 
the nominees of both parties. When, in those days, 
temperance called for votes, as well as talk, it got them. 
What influences have been operating to divide the coun- 
cils, abate the zeal, and lessen the devotion of our rank 
and file below the old standard ? The reader V/ill find 
my answer in some of the preceding chapters. 

The establishment and steady support in the state 
f?om 1858 to the present hour of a wise system of edu- 
cational temperance efforts, with such a general organ- 
ization of our forces as existed from 1835 to 1840, would, 
ere this, have rendered a public brewery, or such a 
shuffling, compromising Legislature as the state has 
been cursed with for a few years past, an impossibility. 
The labor of forming a Prohibitory Party could have 
been spared, for the Republican Party would never have 
taken a backward or even a doubtful step, and the Demo- 
cratic Party, pledged as it is to the support of the liquor 



354 POVERTY AND ITS RESULTS. 

system, would have done no mischief, through lack of 
power and opportunity. 

In justice to the officers of the Alliance it should be 
stated, that the financial resources of the society were 
limited ; too limited, in their estimation, doubtless, to 
warrant them in putting into the lecture field such men 
as I had suggested. It was not for me to press my own 
views or attempt to dictate to those gentlemen, being 
myself but a paid servant of the society, with definite 
duties before me ; but, with my views of the needs of 
the cause in the state at that time, it was to me a source 
of extreme regret, that I could not have the aid in the 
work before me, of such men as I could have selected at 
the time from among the citizens of the state. 

There has been in my opinion no time since 1835, if 
we except the years of our great war, when the judi- 
cious expenditure of fifty thousand dollars annually, for 
six successive years, in the organization and proper tem- 
•perance education of the people of Massachusetts, or 
any other New England state, by such advocates as money 
could have secured, and by the liberal distribution of 
reformatory publications of the right stamp, would not 
have prepared the people and their public servants for 
the complete and final overthrow of the whole liquor 
system. - But that, in the estimation of its aggregate 
wisdom, was quite too much to pay for the redemption 
of the state from its greatest scourge and curse, and the 
subsequent certain and raind progress therein, of every 
enterprise which can contribute to render a people great, 
good, and happy. And so the Christianity of Massa- 
chusetts employed its fifty thousand and more, annually, 
in fighting heathenism and false religions in distant 



MISTAKES OF GOOD MEN. . 355 

lands — an excellent work undoubtedly — and permitted 
the home manufacture of heathen, by thousands, from 
its own sons, while they had ample- power to prevent it. 
If there be, in ancient or modern history, any record 
of folly more astounding, perpetrated by a Christian 
state in connection with its systematic benevolence, I 
should be glad if some one would point it out. Our 
ablest men, and money by hundreds of thousands, sent 
to distant regions, and a home enterprise, declared by 
the utterances of our great religious bodies, Conferences, 
Consociations, Synods, and General Assemblies, to be of 
primary importance, left to die of financial starvation, 
or so feebly supported that those conducting it have been 
compelled to employ cheap labor, and send into the field 
third rate or sixth rate men, to present to the people 
suffering in all their interests from a present and terrible 
scourge, the nature and claims of a remedial system. It 
should be borne in mind that the remedial measures 
awaiting general application are not of doubtful efficacy, 
but absolutely certain in their operation, and that no 
instance of their failure to remove the scourge^ ivhere ^rop- 
erly applied., has yet been reported. Hundreds of locali- 
ties can be found where even their imperfect but steady 
employment from 1830 to 1840 revolutionized public 
opinion and the social customs of the people, crushed 
the license system, and drove the traffic from the com- 
munity, as thoroughly as any other crime or system of 
wrong has ever been driven out by public opinion and 
the will of tlie people embodied in law. As examples, 
I will refer to more than half the towns in Barnstable 
and Plymouth counties of Massachusetts ; to more than 
one-third of the towns in Essex, Bristol, Norfolk, Wor- 



35G WHY IS IT PERMITTED. 

cester, and Hampshire counties, of th^t state ; to many 
towns in the states of Connecticut, Maine, and Yermont, 
and to Suffolk county, Long Island. If, in some of these 
localities, the traffic has been again introduced, and a 
laxity of public sentiment now prevails in relation to the 
use of intoxicants, it is not because the remedial meas- 
ures once so potent have lost their efficacy, but because 
they are altogether neglected, or are no longer employed 
as they ivere ivJien effective. 

With such a remedial system known to the Christian 
people of the land, why has this most terrible curse of 
modern times been permitted to remain and to gather 
from among the youth of our country its thousands of 
victims annually ? 

It is not from ignorance on the ' part of American 
Christians of the existence and terrible extent of the 
evil. From the day when the writings of Lyman Beecher, 
Justin Edwards, Rev. Dr. Hewitt, Jonathan Kittredge, 
Asahel Nettleton, Heman Humphrey, L. M. Sargent, 
Wilber Fisk, and Eev. Dr. Wayland, reached the clergy, 
were scattered among the churches and became a part 
of our Cliristian literature, there has been no hour when 
the traffic in and use of intoxicating liquors have not 
been regarded by the great mass of intelligent Christian 
people as the greatest evil in our country, with perhaps 
the exception of slavery, which has passed away. No, 
it is not ignorance of the existence, extent, nature, and 
causes of the evil. 

Can it be, that the descendants of a heroic ancestry 
find more congenial employment in fighting with heathen- 
ism and false religions abroad, which cannot possibly 
strike back, so as to endanger the property and persons 



A "NEW departure" SUGGESTED. 357 

or the ease and comfort of American Christians, than 
to engage ^an enemy at home which erects its batteries 
ill the sight of onr churches, and openly defies all the 
armies of the Living God on this continent ! , Must we 
entertain a supposition so derogatory to Protestant 
Christianity in this nineteenth century ? Before we do 
so, let one more measure be adopted, one more experi- 
ment tried. 

Let the great religious bodies already referred to take 
a " New Departure " in relation to this great question, 
and instead of contenting themselves, as heretofore, with 
passing resolutions approving the doctrine and practice 
of total abstinence, or declaring the immorality of the 
liquor traffic, or even the necessity for the legal prohi- 
bition of it, — let them declare to the churches and the 
individual Christians of the land the undoubted and im- 
portant truth, that the unparalleled progress, if not the 
early and complete triumph of many other excellent, 
benevolent, and Christian enterprises of this age, only 
awaits the removal of intemperance^ and that a result so 
desirable is entirely within our reach ; and let them in- 
augurate some system of measures through which the 
aggregate Christianity of the land can unitedly assail it. 

Now that Slavery is dead, and the worse than heath- 
enish system of Polygamy is dying of railroad rot and 
the faithful execution of just laws, let them point the 
churches of the land to the liquor traffic and the drink- 
ing usages of society, as the next great line of satanic 
entrenchments to be carried, and sound the trumpet for 
the charge. Then, if the churches and individual Chris- 
tians of the land who are now active in many other good 



358 WILL YOU ATTEND TO IT, SIR? 

works, do not move at their call on the enemy's works, 
we shall be compelled to choose between two piost dam- 
aging conclusions — either that the love of artificial stim- 
ulants is stronger with American Christians than their 
love for Gpd and man, or, thair they are a set of arrant 
cowards, choosing to fight at long range unanswering 
batteries, rather than to engage at close quarters the de- 
fiant and deadly enemy of all public and sacred inter- 
ests, entrenched in their own villages and in sight of 
their own homes. 

Our great ecclesiastical assemblies are looked to by 
the churches of the land to point out to them the most 
promising fields for Christian enterprise, to suggest ap- 
propriate employment for our Christian activities. This 
they frequently do, and their suggestions have always 
been respected and responded to. 

Perhaps appropriate action on their part is all that is 
needed to inaugurate some grand system of operations 
in which all Christian people could heartily unite, and 
to the support of which, financially, all sects and de- 
nominations will give as freely as they now do for edu- 
cational purposes and Christian missions. 

In behalf of a great, beneficent, but imperiled enter- 
prise, I implore the clergy and Christian laymen con- 
nected with our various religious sects, who judge my 
complaints well founded and my suggestion wise, to see 
to it, that at the next general assemblage of your clergy 
and the representatives of your several churches, that 
this subject comes squarely before them, not for expres- 
sions of opinion merely, but for the forming and adop- 
tion of some grand system of measures commensurate 



SIR ? 359 

in extent and power with the enemy to be assailed ; *a 
system which all good men can aid in carrying out. 
Then the doom of our modern Moloch is sealed. It 
cannot withstand the united assault of the American 
churches, added to the organized forces now arrayed 
against it. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

The Million Fund— Massachusetts Alliance— Old Dr. Beecher— To 
the West again — Thurlow W. Brown. 

To one who lias watched the progress of the temper- 
ance enterprise from its origin, in 1826, it is interesting 
to recall the various expedients resorted to, at different 
periods, to supply needed funds — to meet a want which 
sliould have been provided for in the outset by the orig- 
inators of the reform movement. In the conduct of no 
other enterprise of this age has the financial department 
been so unworthily managed, especially during the first 
fifteen years of its progress. All our local organiza- 
tions, prior to the revolutions of 1840-41, had each a 
treasurer, but no sensible provision had been incorporat- 
ed into their working plan to supply him with needed 
funds, and so the officers of the society had to pay cur- 
rent expenses or resort to the contribution box at the 
close of public meetings — a very unreliable resource. 
After the passage of the prohibitory law, in 1852, the 
need of funds became more pressing than at previous 
periods. To secure its successful enforcement, able 
legal counsel would be required and other auxiliary 
agencies which money only could command. In this 
emergency, a very earnest and energetic friend of tlic 
^ause, B. Dunbar, from Bristol county, proposed, at a 
State Convention held in Tremont Temple, Boston, in 
May, 1853, to raise, by subscription, a fund of one mil- 

(360) 



THE MILLION FUND. 361 

lion dollars, to be taxed annually at such rate as the 
exigencies of tlie times might require, the tax not to ex- 
ceed, however, three per cent, during any year. The 
amount which might be thus obtained was to be expend- 
ed under the direction of the State Temperance Com- 
mittee, to aid in the proper enforcement of the law. 
The proposition was carried in the Convention, and a 
committee raised to secure subscriptions to the " Million 
Fund," as it was termed. Dunbar was appointed chair- 
man, and a better one could not have been found in the 
state. He was a mechanic of limited education but of 
indomitable energy, of unquestioned integrity, imperturb- 
able good nature, and a zeal which knew no bounds, 
and, withal, a man who never seemed to have learned 
the meaning of the word failure, whether in reference 
to a public or a private enterprise. 

His movements in relation to any matter of interest 
would be likely to recall to any one who had ever read 
tliem, the lines of a humorous English poet in reference 
to the wonderful assurance of a genuine live Yankee, 
his penchant for pricing everything he sees, and other 
corresponding traits : 

" He'd kiss the Queen 'till he raised a blister. 

With his arm round her neck and his old felt Jhat on ! 

He'd address the King by the title of 'mister,' 
And ask him the price of the throne he sat on." 

Such a man makes a first rate chairman of a financial 
committee, and Dunbar secured, in Bristol county alone, 
as I have been informed, subscriptions for more than 
three-fourths of the whole amount. Whether the full 
million was obtained I am not informed, but the annual 



362 MASSACHUSETTS ALLIANCE. 

tax on the amount raised constituted for years the most 
reliable and considerable support of temperance efforts 
in Massachusetts. A remnant of that fund still remains, 
it seems, and is taxed as formerly. While on the sub- 
ject of the financial support of temperance operations, 
the following exhibit of the receipts of the Massachu- 
setts Temperance Alliance for the year 1871, may inter- 
est the reader. I clip it from the Annual Report of 
that society, kindly sent me by its secretary, Rev. Wm. 
Thayer. 

FINANCIAL EXHIBIT 



For the Year ending September 30, 1871. 


1870. 






Oct. 1. — Cash balance on hand, 




-• $130.48 


from Million Fund, - 


- 


75.00 


from life members, 




- 745.00 


from donations. 


.- 


4,804.00 


from Alliance members, 




- 5,923.68 


from sales at office^ - 


- 


S24.49 


from collections, 




51.83 


from room letting, - 


- 


91.77 


from borrowed money, - 




- 512.99 
$12,659.24 



It flatters what the reader may call my vanity, if he 
chooses, to perceive that the most considerable amount 
in the foregoing 2xhibit comes from the dollar member- 
ship plan introduced at my suggestion in 1840, and 
which, though abandoned on the breaking down of the 
" Temperance Union," as described in Chap. IX, has 
been resuscitated by the Alliance, and is now its most 
reliable means of support. 

During the years 1858 and '59, I met frequently in 



DR. LYMAN BEECHER. 363 

the Committee Room of the Alliance, that old intellec- 
tual Giant and early champion of the reform, Dr. Lyman 
Beecher. I liad never known him personally at the pe- 
riod of his greatest strength, but it was a rare privilege 
to meet and confer with him in his old age. Occasion- 
ally something would occur to excite the old veteran and 
rekindle for the moment the fires of an earlier period, 
and it was worth a journey to Boston from the Rocky 
Mountains to see and hear him then. 

At one of the prayer meetings held at the Old South 
Churcli, he gave a terrible shock to the usual decorum 
which characterized those meetings, by a burst of en- 
thusiasm over the Maine Law. 

He had pictured, as he only could, the conflict which 
had been going on in the Universe for centuries, between 
the powers of light and darkness, of good and evil, and 
the anxiety and dismay which he, as well as millions 
of others, had felt at times, notwithstanding their trust 
in God and the promises of His word, in view of the 
fierceness of the struggle and the seeming advantage 
sometimes gained by the powers of evil. '' But, breth- 
ren," said he, " let us rejoice and be glad, for the pow- 
ers of hell are just now in dismay. That Glorious 
Maine Law was a square and grand blow right between 
the very horns of the Devil, and from the moment of its 
reception I seem to see him falling back — stubborn and 
terrible, but falling back ! and the consecrated host of 
God's elect pressing close upon him !" While thus giv- 
ing vent to emotions too strong for words alone to ex- 
press, the grand old man was advancing on the floor, 
swinging his big cane with a powerful energy, which 
showed very clearly the spirit in which he would fight 



364 TO THE WEST AGAIN. 

the biggest devil in existence had he been there. He 
wound up magnificently. " So it shall be brethren — 
I believe it — I see it — they will crowd him back, and 
crowd him back — (still advancing and swinging his 
cane) — until they shall push him over the battlements, 
and send him back to the Hell from which he came forth ! 
and then shall come up from a redemed earth the shout : 
Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth peace and 
good will to men !" 

The old man has left us in his family some grand 
representatives of his intellect, his brilliant imagination, 
courage, and zeal in good enterprises, but it is doubtful 
if any one, or all of them ever knew, or can know, until 
they have been two or three centuries in Heaven, that 
tempest of grand emotions which sometimes swelled the 
great soul of Lyman Beecher. 

Having become convinced, after a trial of some 
months, that such a reorganization of our forces in Massa- 
chusetts as I had contemplated, was for the time imprac- 
ticable, I resigned my agency and returned to the West. 
During the year 1860 I labored in Wisconsin under the 
direction of the Wisconsin State Temperance Society, vis- 
iting and lecturing in all the cities and large towns of the 
state. I was greatly aided in my labor by Mr. George' 
E. Sickles, who has exerted a very decided influence in 
favor of the cause for more than thirty years, in various 
capacities and in different sections of the country. He 
was with us in the early campaigns in Massachusetts — 
and recently, as a financial agent of the National Tem- 
perance Society, has rendered to it essential service. 

During the year, and while delivering a course of lec- 
tures in Milwaukee, Wis., I made the acquaintance of a 



365 

number of earnest brethren who were warring upon the 
common enemy through an organization then quite new 
to me, the '• Good Templars." I was earnestly invited 
to become a member of the Order, and was there initi- 
ated into its mysteries. It seemed to me at the time a 
work of supererogation, if not very like a joke, to put 
an old servant of the cause who had advocated temper- 
ance by tongue and pen before three-fourths of those in 
the Hall were born, through the ceremony of initiation 
into a temperance society, pledging to the practice of 
abstinence, in the most solemn manner, one who had 
practiced it for very many years, and devoted more 
hours to the advocacy ©f temperance than any man in 
the United States. No harm could come of it, however, 
and so I pledged anew to the cause under the forms of 
,that Order, as I had done nearly twenty years before, 
when joining the Sons of Temperance. 

While yet engaged in ]\Iilwaukee, the Good Templars 
of the city addressed a circular to the local Lodges 
throughout the State, informing them of my connection 
with the Order, and commending me to their confidence 
and fraternal regard ; and urging them to secure me, as 
far as possible, an audience with the people. I have no 
doubt that my usefulness in the state was thereby pro- 
moted. Since that date, I have, at different periods, 
served the Grand Lodges of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and 
Vermont, and very many local lodges in other states, as 
well as very many Divisions of the Sons of Temperance ; 
and I have always, with one single exception, received, 
not only from the oflBcials of those organizations, but 
from their rank and file, the utmost kindness and con- 
sideration. 



366 THURLOW W. BROWN. 

A man may, without any sacrifice of principle or self- 
respect, advocate a great cause without a specific endorse- 
ment or any special advocacy of all the forms or ma- 
chuiery employed to advance it in the locality where he 
may happen to be laboring. A Presbyterian or a Con- 
gregationalist may preach Christ acceptably and faith- 
fully from a Methodist pulpit, without yielding his own 
peculiar views of Christian doctrine or church govern- 
ment, or assailing those of his Methodist brethren. To 
do the former, might show a want of fidelity to his con- 
victions ; to do the latter, would certainly prove him 
wanting in courtesy. 

During my labor in Wisconsin I visited the home of 
that able champion of temperance," Thurlow W. Brown. 
Although his usefulness was marred by some eccentrici- 
ties, which were undoubtedly due to the infirm state of 
his health, he was a most faithful and earnest advocate 
of our especial doctrines for many years. The grand 
truths connected with some phases of the enterprise, 
have never been more ably presented than in some of 
the leading articles of the '' Wisconsin Chief," while 
under his control. 

With faculties of observation unusually keen, a bril- 
liant imagination, strong logical powers, a rare com- 
mand of language, an iron will, and a hatred of the 
whole liquor system as intense as ever glowed in a 
human soul, he contributed largely to mould the public 
sentiment of his time. His influence was widely ex- 
tended and beneficent. 

During the year 1862, I labored in the state of Illi- 
nois, and notwithstanding our great war was then in 
progress, engrossing largely the thoughts and energies 



THE CAUSE AT THE WEST. 367 

of the people, I generally addressed good andiences. 
As the population of our western states comprises a 
larger portion of young men, or those in the most 
active period of life, all movements and enterprises 
there are characterized by a greater measure of energy 
than in the older states. If sometimes that energy and 
the fiery zeal that prompts it, should, in the estimation 
of our eastern people, assume the appearance of rash- 
ness, it would be no matter for surprise. The cause is 
not sustained, financially, at the west, as in the New 
England States, for the people are not generally so 
wealthy. Close organizations are almost the only ones 
existing there, and although they break down from time 
to time in particular localities, as other temperance 
organizations are wont to do, yet the pressing need of 
organized opposition to the liquor system soon prompts 
to their renewal. They embrace in the rural districts 
a larger portion of the clergy and influential Christian 
laymen, than kindred societies in the older States. Only 
a portion of those, however, who practice abstinence 
from intoxicants, and hate the liquor traffic, are orgm- 
ized. They never can be while our organizations retain 
their present forms and features, and the triumph of our 
cause there, awaits the coming of that measure of prac- 
tical wisdom which can organize and employ all our 
available force. A determined effort to secure the 
prohibition of the traffic by law, is now being made in 
Illinois, by separate or independent political action on 
tlie part of the friends of temperance. Whether they 
will succeed in obtaining a controlling majority, or in 
influencing the dominant political party to add prohibi- 
tion as a plank in their political platform, time only can 



S68 CAN YOU HELP THEM TO SEE IT? TRY. 

determine. From facts which have come to light and 
obtained publicity, it would seem that the elements of 
intoxication played no minor part in the great calamity 
which has so recently befallen Chicago. It would be 
very extraordinary if it did not, for it is an important 
agent in the production of at least three-fourths of the 
ordinary casualties which occur, and seven-eighths of 
the great calamities which afflict our country. 

While laboring in Illinois, with my residence in Chi- 
cago, I had noticed from time to time in the religious pa- 
pers, articles from the pens of earnest friends of temper- 
ance, who were troubled in view of its slow and unsatis- 
factory progress, and were laboring to solve the problem 
of its causation. A careful perusal of those articles 
convinced me that their authors had -not studied the 
subject sufficiently to see clearly the sources of the mis- 
chief they deplored, and were seeking to remedy. I had 
the vanity to believe that I could help my brethren to 
see clearly wdiat was wanted, and therefore publislied 
my views of the subject in a pamphlet (to which I have 
had occasion to refer in another chapter) entitled : — 
" The Temperance Cause, Past, Present, and Future ; 
or — Why we are. Where we are," in reference to the 
enterprise. ' I sent about two hundred copies of it to 
leading men in different parts of the country who had 
distinguished themselves by great devotion to the cause, 
and through a note which I addressed to them individu- 
ally, solicited their opinion of the truthfulness of my 
historical statements, of the doctrines I had advanced, 
and of the practical suggestions contained in the con- 
cluding chapter of the work. I received a pile of letters 
from distinguished men, scholars divines and philan- 



MY ENDORSERS. ob9 

thropists, including among them the Presidents of three 
colleges, and such men as Benjamin Silliman, Senior, 
of Yale College, L. M. Sargent, John Pierpont, Gerrit 
Smith, E. C. Delevan, James Black, Rev. Dr. Hawes of 
Hartford, Rev. Jacob Ide of Massachusetts, and many 
other distinguished men, and from all I got substan- 
tially but one answer ; — you are right in the views ex 
pressed. 

Notwithstanding such endorsement of my views by 
many of the wisest men of our times, the great mass of 
our active reformers have still gone forward, reenacting 
the blunders which have hindered our progress, just as 
though they had never been pointed out. It is, to say the 
least, very unfortunate that those engaged in a great and 
good work should ignore the teachings of experience, 
and persist in going ahead on ill-considered plans. Most 
of the points argued at length in the work referred to, 
are reconsidered in the foregoing chapters ; some at 
considerable length, others very briefly. As to the 
practical suggestions contained in this volume, I hope 
my fellow laborers will heed them, or prove to the world 
by a com'teous discussion of them through some fitting 
channel, that they are unwise. For one, I should be 
glad if we could have a convention of the leaders of the 
enterprise from all sections of the country, at some con- 
venient and central point, to continue in session ten 
days or a fortnight, if need be, to consider the practical 
methods of securing an united movement of all good 
men, and all good influences, to stay the plague of in- 
temperance in the land. 

During all the weary years of our great war, no pro- 
gress was made toward annihilating the drink scourge^ 



370 THE DROVER. — BLOOD. 

but, on the contrary, that struggle manifested the power 
of intoxicants to work mischief, in ways and to an ex- 
tent unknown to us before. On many a bloody field, 
thousands of brave men went quickly down to death 
through the blunders of intoxicated officers. It was to 
be expected that drunkenness would increase in time of 
war. Liquor sellers always calculate on increased sales 
and extra profits during seasons of great excitement, 
even though that excitement be caused by the results of 
their own nefarious business. 

A sad case illustrative of that truth, occurred in Mas- 
sachusetts during the year 1840. A citizen of Maine 
reached the great cattle market of Brighton, a few miles 
from Boston — sold his drove, and the proceeds soon 
found their way into the pockets of the liquor sellers 
and gamblers of the town. Shame, sorrow, and finan- 
cial embarrassment were of course the results. Still 
deeper drinking was now resorted to, to benumb his 
faculties, render him insensible to the pangs of re- 
morse, and to dissipate troublesome thoughts relative to 
the future consequences to his family and creditors, of 
his guilt and folly. He went to his room in the " Cattle 
Fair Hotel," it was directly over the bar-room, and in a 
paroxysm of drunken frenzy cut his throat. The smok- 
ing blood of the wretched man found its way through 
the imperfect floor of his room and through cracks in 
the plastering beneath, and trickled down upon the bar- 
room floor. Tliose present, startled at the sight, rushed 
up to the room above, burst open the door, which he 
had fastened, only to witness the speedy death of the 
wretched man who in his desperation had severed com- 
pletely the great arteries of his neck. 



INFATUATION. 371 

Doctor Whittemore, a physician of the town, who had 
been hastily summoned as soon as the terrible event had 
become known, informed me, that as the news of the 
affair flew abroad an unusual crowd gathered at the 
hotel to learn the distressing particulars, and that an ex- 
tra hand ivas required at the bar to furnish liquors to the 
company. 

The doctor stated to me that he repeatedly saw men 
leave their seats in that bar-room, for another drink, 
when they had, in their short journey to the bar, to turn 
aside from a straight course to avoid the pool of blood 
on the floor — blood which they knew had just flowed from 
the gaping and ghastly wounds of a liquor-crazed suicide. 
Is there any other matter known to you, reader, in con- 
nection with which men become so strangely infatuated, 
as they do in the use of intoxicants ? 

Nothing worthy of special remark occurred in con- 
nection with my labor for the furtherance of the cause, 
during or after the close of the war, until the year 1867. 
Prior to that date, central Iowa had been the extreme 
limit of my journeyings toivard the west — which I have 
not yet been able to reach. 

At the date named, I received an invitation to spend 
a few months in Kansas. I think the temperance senti- 
ment is stronger, and pervades society more generally 
in that State thanin any of the States I have visited west 
of tlie great lakes, if we except Iowa, which has reached 
and maintained a very advanced position in connection 
with the cause. 

While laboring in Kansas, an incident occurred which 
all friends of reform will regard as most fortunate, and 
which as strongly as almost any recorded fact of modern 



372 A JUST LAW. 

times, warrants a belief that God does now occasion- 
ally, as in former times, discomfit the enemies of truth 
and justice and encourage the faithful by special or ex- 
ceptional arrangements of his Divine Providence. The 
Legislature of Kansas was in session at Topeka, and we 
were holding there a State Temperance Convention. 
The railroad by which a large portion of our temperance 
delegations reached the place, was on the west bank of 
the Kansas, while Topeka is on the east side of the river. 
The bridge which had formerly spanned the river had 
been swept away, and we had crossed the swollen stream 
in boats. During the session of the convention a bill 
had been introduced into the legislature for the control 
or regulation of the liquor traffic, with a novel but very 
just provision, that no license should be- granted to any 
individual to sell intoxicating liquors within the state, 
until the party applying for license should present to the 
proper authorities a petition for the same, signed by a 
majority of the adult citizens, both male and female, of 
his district, or if in a city, the ward in which he pro- 
posed to engage in the business. It was argued, and 
with decided ability and force, that wherever tolerated, 
the results of the traffic would be sure to put in peril 
the safety and happiness of the mothers, wives, and 
daughters of that locality, and that therefore they ought 
certainly to have a voice in deciding whether it should 
there be allowed or not, and all the more so, as they 
could not, at the polls or otherwise, render their wislies 
or wills potential in the matter, except by such a pro- 
vision, The bill ^as of course opposed at every stage 
pf its progress, by the friends of the liquor system, but 



A PREDICAMENT. 373 

they were few and feeble in that legislature, and it 
seemed quite evident that it would become a law. 

In this emergency a dispatch was sent over the wires 
to the liquor traders of Leavenworth, the great center of 
the liquor interest for Kansas, stating the condition of 
things at the capitol, and urging them to come on with 
all available speed and appliances, to check, if possible, 
the impending disaster. The liquor fraternity were 
thoroughly alarmed, and a full car-load of them reached 
the depot at Topeka, the morning after they received the 
notice, confident that by such influences as they might 
bring to bear on the members of the House or Senate, 
they could prevent the passage of the bill. But here 
they learned the truth of the Divine word, " The expec- 
tation of the wicked shall perish." Alas ! It had hap- 
pened that during the night the ice in a tributary of the 
Kansas, the Republican Fork, had broken up, and was 
being whirled along toward the Missouri at a rate which 
rendered it impossible to cross the river in a boat. Not 
all the blood-money in those liquor-sellers' pockets, and 
they were well lined undoubtedly, could tempt a boat- 
man to risk his boat and life in an attempt to cross. 
They fumed, and raved, and swore worse than did a cer- 
tain famous army in Flanders, but all in vain. They were 
compelled to remain in plain sight ol the State House, 
while the bill passed through the several stages and was 
enacted by an overwhelming majority in both branches, 
and received the signature of the Governor. The tem- 
perance convention, in the mean time, had finished its 
business and adjourned, but as the river was impassable 
a large portion of the delegates were compelled to re- 
main, and so it was concluded that we would have a 



874 A GOOD TIME. 

grand glorification over the passage of tlie new law. It 
was lield in the Representatives' Chamber, and a hap- 
pier group than there assembled I have never met. It 
was one of those occasions on which a man with a toler- 
ably keen nervous system, lives very fast, without artifi- 
cial stimulants. 

Learning, when the river became passable, that they 
could effect nothing by crossing, the liquor-sellers took 
the earliest train homeward, pondering, no doubt, on 
the probabilities of success in getting a future license, 
when the women of their district must be consulted in 
relation to the matter. 

Thus, to the young state of Kansas belongs the honor 
of having first accorded to woman, the greatest sufferer 
from the liquor system, a potential voice in reference to 
its continuance or suppression. 

The winter of 1868-9 I spent in Ohio, a part of the 
time in the employment of the Grand Lodge of Good 
Templars for that State, and the remainder in delivering 
courses of lectures, on private contract with the breth- 
ren, in some of the larger towns and villages in the State. 
While thus engaged, and during the month of February, 
my health began to suffer from too severe and protracted 
labor, and becoming somewhat alarmed by symptoms 
indicating approaching paralysis, I discontinued my 
labor and started for a visit to one of my sons, who re- 
sides on the Cumberland Plateau, in East Tennessee. 

Finding the scenery quite novel and the climate 
healthful and delightful, I concluded to spend the sum- 
mer there, and — don't laugh, dear reader — bought me a 
small farm, whicli I purpose to occupy and Yankeefy, 
when I get my thoughts on the temperance question 



EAST TENNESSEE. 375 

fully before my countrymen, — provided always — Cincin- 
nati shall build its projected railroad across Eastern 
Kentucky and over the Cumberland Plateau, direct to 
Chattanooga, the great railroad center of the South. I 
must, however, add one other pro^dso, viz : that the line 
of that road be run so near my farm as to render it 
quite convenient for me to get the " Cincinnati Gazette" 
and the " Commercial," by twelve o'clock at noon on 
the day they are printed, — and from the other direction, 
my basket of Georgia peaches, in the season of them, by 
express, the same day they are picked from the trees, 
as the peach crop of the Plateau, though fine, and gen- 
erally abundant where trees have been grown, does oc- 
casionally fail. 

East Tennessee has many attractions for northern 
men of limited means and industrious habits, who must 
buy cheap lands if any — who desire a mild and equable 
climate, are fond of good fruit, venison steaks, and a 
cheerful wood-fire on the hearths of their sitting room, 
and who would be entirely out of the way of ague-shakes 
and cholera-contagion, and whose habits and disposi- 
tions are such that they can find more pleasure in shap- 
ing aright a new community, than in the quiet enjoyment 
of the stereotyped institutions, and — if you please — the 
manifold advantages of an old one. 

For the information of those who would become my 
neighbors on the Cumberland Plateau, I will here inform 
them, that real estate on the moutain is cheap — hence I 
bought my farm there. 

Having recruited my energies by a summer's resi- 
dence on the mountain aforesaid, I visited, in September, 



376 

Her Majesty's Province of Ontario — formerly ^' Canada 
West"— ^on the invitation of our brethren there, and 
spent a month delightfully in laboring with and for 
them. The temperance Orders, Sons of Temperance 
and Good Templars, are the only temperance organiza- 
tions I found in Ontario, except here and there one for 
the youth and children. In the mother country, Eng- 
land, nineteen-twentieths of the temperance organiza- 
tions are on the pattern I prefer — open to all the world. 
When men trained in those English societies visit the 
Provinces, our brethren there will do well to notice 
whether their temperance education be not in advance 
of those trained on this side of the Atlantic, in close 
organizations. From what I learned during this tour 
and on previous visits to the Provinces,.! judge there is 
there less hostility to the peculiar and characteristic fea- 
tures of close organizations among the clergy and Chris- 
tian people generally, than among the same class on 
this side of the line. Be that as it may, the Orders, 
there, are doing pretty much all that is done, in the way 
of organized efforts for the advancement of the cause. 

Whether, while our brethren shall operate exclusively 
through those forms, they can sufficiently educate the 
masses in temperance doctrines, and thus prepare for 
the annihilation of the liquor traffic, remains to be 
seen. 

While making the tour last mentioned, I received an 
invitation from the officers of the National Temperance 
Society to visit New York, and while making that the 
center of my lecturing operations, assist in the editorial 
management of the " National Temperance Advocate.'* 



THE NATIONAL SOCIETY. 377 

I have continued thus to serve the cause of temperance 
from the autumn of 1869 to the present date, and with 
my view of tlie importance of the '' National Society 
and Publication House " to the temperance cause gen- 
erally, and consequently to all the most precious inter- 
ests of the American people, I only regret that I have 
not been able to render that important organization 
more essential service. 



CHAPTER XX. 

Charles Dickens — The Logic of Facts — Narcotism and Death — • 
Slightly intoxicated — What we must teach — Starvation and con- 
sequent feebleness — Foundations and Connections — Temperance 
and the Doctors — New Years Calls — Our Colleges — Wine and 
Silence — Crowding matters too close — A muddle indeed — Tobacco. 

The following are selected from my recent writings. 
Most of the articles have reference to practical points 
which are now everywhere under discussion among the 
friends of temperance. If many years of careful ob- 
servation, investigation, and experience, in connection 
with reformatory labor, attach any value to my opinions 
relative to the matters I have had under consideration, 
the careful perusal of these selections may be useful to 
tlie reader. 

The first of the series was occasioned by the death of 
one of the most voluminous and popular writers of our 
age, whose influence upon the minds and morals of his 
millions of readers was very earnestly discussed on the 
platform and through the press, for some months after 
his sudden decease. My contribution toward the settle- 
ment of a much vexed question, is respectfully sub- 
mitted. 

Chaeles Dickens. 

The death of this popular author has naturally given 
rise to much discussion relative to his peculiar merits 

(3T8) 



CHARLES DICKENS. 379 

and the influence he has exerted on the popular mind 
and heart, and the habits, lives, and destinies of men. 
All concede to him the first rank as a prose writer, and 
gratefully recognize the eminent service he has rendered 
mankind in giving us, in his voluminous writings, such 
vivid and startling portraitures of folly and wrong as 
have compelled thousands to laugh at the folly and hate 
the wrong which perhaps themselves had unwittingly 
practiced, and to turn from both with clearer views of 
truth and duty, a better mind, and an earnest purpose 
to live thenceforth a better and a nobler life. 

The advent of his works has wrought in many a home 
the same result as did the visit of William Fern and the 
helpless Lilian to the home of Toby Veck, and sent its 
inmates forth to the duties of life with the same cheerful 
spirit that prompted Toby to serve so efficiently his hum- 
ble friends, with his " Here we are, and here we go." 

But it cannot be said, truthfully, that the perusal of 
his writings has contributed to advance the cause of 
temperance in this drinking and drunken world, or to 
put men more on their guard against the insidious as- 
saults of the most potent enemy of human health, purity, 
and happiness. The drink-traffic and drinking customs 
and habits of the people of England are a more terrible 
enemy to the working classes, and particularly to the 
poor, in whose more especial interest he wrote, than all 
the other unfortunate circumstances and influences with 
which they are surrounded ; whether directly emanating 
from unjust laws, oppressive customs, or the selfishness 
and wickedness of individual men. How happened it 
that he who dealt such unerring and stunning blows on 
almost every other folly and wrong of human society, 



380 CHARLES DICKENS. 

had no blow for tins gigantic system of wickedness, this 
destroyer of human industries, this panderer to every 
nameless vice, this relentless crusher of hearts and 
hopes, this parent of mobs and riots, of barbarities and 
butcheries, this filler of poor-houses, prisons, and un- 
timely graves ? Our complaint is not that the brandy- 
bottle, the punch-bowl, and the wine appear so frequently 
in the scenes described, but that they come forth with 
eddt^ with evident approval ; and that the free use of 
intoxicating liquors, even to the production of insane 
babblings and maudlin intoxication, is nowhere repre- 
hended. In his Christmas stories, ghosts and phantoms 
exhibit to different individuals, with startling effect, the 
legitimate and inevitable results of the false principles 
they entertain, and of the wrong courses they are pursu- 
ing, until they turn from the false and the wrong with 
loathing and resolve on thorough reformation. But 
where, by ghost or phantom or otherwise, in the works 
of Dickens, are the consumers of brandy and rum-punch 
shown the frequent and terrible results of their indul- 
gences, and led to resolve on their abandonment ? In 
his Christmas Carols everybody drinks, man, woman, and 
child, from Scrooge to Tiny Tim ; though, to the credit 
of the dear little fellow, it is said he cared nothing for 
it : " Tiny Tim drank it last of all, but he didn't care 
twopence for it." 

Dickens's most estimable characters, whom he compels 
us to admire and love, drink, and drink freely. The 
kind-hearted, sympathetic, and philosophical Pickwick 
drinks always, when the article is at hand ; and on one 
occasion he drank, we are told, until " his head was sunk 
upon his bosom, and perpetual snoring — with a partial 



CHARLES DICKENS. 381 

choke occasionally — were the only audible indications 
of the great man's presence." This was a sad state 
physically for a good man, not to speak of the small 
matter of morals ; but no thoughtful member of the 
Pickwick Club, nor ghost, nor phantom hints at a possi- 
ble apoplexy by and by, or a visitation of the gout, as 
the probable outcome of siicli indulgences ; so he con- 
tinues to drink. 

Nowhere, and in no way, so far as we recollect, are 
we tauglit by this great master of the noblest art — who 
holds, as it were, our very hearts in his hand, and moves 
them at his will — to class free drinking with habits and 
characteristics to be avoided. They are generally 
treated as matters of indifference, as in the case of the 
Drum, a private friend of Trotty's, in the Chimes : " The 
Drum was rather drunk, by the by ; but never mind." 

If our best writers, those who inculcate the purest 
morals and the loftiest sentiments, in relation to other 
matters, will treat this most destructive of all man's 
vices with such leniency, and thus instruct their admiring 
readers to do the same, what is to come of it? Reader, 
we put that question to you. Free drinkers, in the pages 
of Dickens, are not only companionable, excellent fel- 
lows, but they are sometimes pious withal ; and, quite 
unlike what we have observed on this side the Atlantic, 
the piety seems none the worse for the liquor. As an 
instance, glorious Bob Cratchet drinks "; and in the over- 
flowing of his heart he does what even our few wine- 
drinking doctors of di\'inity with all their piety fail to 
do, so far as we have learned — he asks God to bless him 
and his friends in their perilous indulgence. After serv- 
ing out liberally the " hot stuff from the jug," Bob ex- 



382 CHARLES DICKENS. 

claims, "A merry Christmas to us all, my dears. God 
bless us !" 

Were it necessary, we could quote columns in illus- 
tration of the truth we have before stated, that drinking, 
free drinking, even to intoxication, with all its terrible 
consequences, was not reckoned by Mr. Dickens among 
the follies or wrongs of the age which he felt called upon 
to rebuke or to aid in reforming. On the contrary, blows 
aimed by the good men of his time at the drink system 
he skillfully parried, and their efforts to effect a reform 
he held up to undeserved ridicule. However excellent 
the influence of his writings otherwise, on this one sub- 
ject he was wrong, terribly wrong ; wrong in opinion, 
in feeling, and in practice, and the influence of his writ- 
ings, however excellent in relation to other matters, 
tends directly to popularize and perpetuate the drinking 
customs of society, nowhere more prevalent or destruct- 
ive than as they existed directly under the eye of the 
writer. 

But what is the explanation of all this ? How could 
one with such wonderful, aye, almost microscopic power 
of observation, fail to see the drink system in its proper 
light ? The gin -palaces of London and drink-shops gen- 
erally are not among the indifferent things of this earth, 
and likely to escape observation from their very insig^ 
nificance. They are powers in the earth for good or foi' 
evil. Was there any difBculty in determining which ? 
Did fashion or custom so cloak the evil that he could not 
see the facts and the truths beneath or behind them ? 
They never, elsewliere, concealed a trulli or a wrong 
from him. In relation to other matters, his eagle eye 
looked througli such flimsy coverings, as the sun looks 



CHARLES DICKENS. 383 

ill at an open window when no cloud or curtain inter- 
venes. Was there nothing in the drink system, with its 
legitimate, everywhere present, and manifold miseries, 
to interest him ? He was not certainly the " Doctor 
Jeddler" of his own pages, to whom, before reformation 
came, the world and all its affairs seemed but a ridicu- 
lous farce, fit only to provoke a laugh or point a jest. He 
felt for and eloquently pleaded the cause of all who were 
wronged and crushed, except the millions who suffer 
from the terrible oppression and wrong of the drink- 
traffic and the drinking customs. For these he had no 
plea, no word of encouragement or hope, and no word 
of denunciation for the villainous system by which they 
are crushed. The divine word gives us the key with 
which to find the truth here. 

'• Wine is a mocker" (a deceiver). The idea is that 
of being cheated, deluded, as the reader will see by 
reading the verse through : "And whosoever is deceived 
iherehy, is not wise." 

Dickens, though a man of wonderful powers, was not 
proof against the deluding influence of wine. Isaiah 
tells us that " the priest and the prophets" of his time 
*' erred through wine." He said, " They err in vision, 
they stumble in judgment." Men, even our priests and 
prophets, have not become angels since the time of Isaiah, 
and wine is wine still, and as potent to deceive as ever. 
Dickens was, in this matter, no worse nor better than 
other great and good men of our age, wlio ignore this 
great question ; and who, by example and precept, sus- 
tain the most wicked and destructive system that now 
cm'ses the earth. More than one-fourth of the clergy' 
of England, and some of the same class in this country, 
lend their influence to the weight that is crushing the 



384 CHARLES DICKENS. 

hearts and hopes of thousands, corrupting the public 
morals, and opposing itself squarely and defiantly to 
every good influence and institution. Our Senators and 
Congressmen, more than half of them, drink. Learned 
judges, lawyers, and doctors drink. They know that 
tens of thousands of their countrymen go down annually 
to drunkards' graves ; and they know, too, that by the 
utterance of truth, and the practice of self-denial, they 
could personally greatly lessen the evil, but they choose 
to drink. They smack their moist lips over their liquors, 
bow to each other over the table, drink and laugh, and 
seem utterly regardless of the influence they are exerting. 
Submit to the consideration of these gentlemen any 
other agency producing a thousandth part the mischief 
and misery of the drink system, and you will instantly 
learn that tliey are neither stupid nor heartless ; but in 
reference to this matter, they are living illustrations of 
the truth of God's word : they are deceived, deluded, and 
many of them by the same influence doomed and damned. 
The infatuation of men, even good men, in reference to 
the use of intoxicating liquors, is really amazing. We 
could point to learned Professors of Colleges or schools 
of Divinity who have pleaded for winC; and continued to 
drink it, while it was ruining their sons and desolating 
their homes. We reckon it among the most disagreeable 
of all our duties as the conductor of a reformatory jour- 
nal to speak thus of the errors, follies, and faults of our 
great men, our men of genius and learning, for whom, 
otherwise, wc feel a respect amounting often to absolute 
reverence ; but to treat with leniency their manifest and 
mischievous errors would be neither scriptural, kind, nor 
just. It would be practicing cruelty to the millions who 



THE LOGIC OF FACTS. 385 

are misled by their example, and whose hard lou in life 
is rendered more hard by their evil influence. It should 
ever be remembered, that neither genius, learning, nor 
exalted position can sanctify a wrong or neutralize the 
influence of error ; but, on the contrary, give added 
power to both. Falsehood and profanity did not change 
their characters when practiced by the eloquent apostle 
Peter, nor was adultery rendered a virtue or respectable 
by the example of a David. 



The Logic of Facts. 

In the earlier stages of the temperance enterprise, 
those who labored to advance it had little to do with 
theories and philosophical speculations. Their attention 
was chiefly occupied with a multitude of most deplorable 
facts ^ which every thoughtful, honest observer traced at 
once to the use of alcoholic liquors as their immediate 
procuring cause. There was no mistaking the paternity 
of the mischief. The relationship was too intimate 
and obvious. Thousands of good men, all over the 
land, desirous of lessening the evils to which their at- 
tention had been called, and the cause of which they 
now clearly perceived, resolved at once to try the effect 
of abstinence, anticipating, many of them at least, some 
present evil in the contemplated change in their habits, 
but willing to suffer, if need be, if by so doing they could 
mitigate the manifold evils of intemperance. These 
friends were happily disappointed. As the result of 
their abstinence from alcoholic liquors, they became 
physically and mentally more -vigorous, and could endure 
17 



886 THE LOGIC OF FACTS. 

protracted labor and extremes of heat and cold better 
than before the change in their liabits. In short, they 
discovered that a measure of seir-;leiiial which they had 
practiced for conscience sake, and from a benevolent 
desire to do good to others, had promoted their own 
health and happiness in an eminent degree. These re- 
sults of abstinence from the use of liquors by those who 
had previously used them for years in all their varieties 
and forms, under all circumstances, and we might 
almost write, in all quantities, have been uniform, ac- 
cording to the declaration of those who were best qual- 
ified to judge, they having personally tested tlie matter. 
Their united testimony comes up to us as the sound of 
many waters — as with the voice of an earthquake. All 
the biblical quotations and interpretations of our few 
wine-drinking clergymen, and all the wire-drawn theo- 
ries of our whisky-drinking doctors, cannot alter these 
facts. There they stand in the aggregate, like Bunker 
Hill Monument, massive and grand, a memorial of the 
past and a beacon for the future. 

Now, any theory of the action of alcoholic liquors on 
the bodies of men and their various organs and tissues, 
which is utterly inconsistent with this aggregation of 
facts, MUST BE FALSE. A man might as well undertake 
to prove to us by some curious process of reasoning that 
fire will not burn us, or that food is not needful to the 
comfort and sustenance of our bodies. The contact of 
a heated iron with our fingers, or a fast of twenty-foui* 
hours, will prove too strong for all such theories. 



WHAT WE MUST TEACH. 387 



What we must Teach. 



Thousands violated the laws of their physical being 
before the commencement of the temperance reform by 
swallowing alcoholic liquors ; but they did it in ignorance 
of the law and its requirements ; and we have no more 
reason for questioning their Christian character in con- 
sequence than we should the conscientiousness or Chris- 
tian character of men who, through ignorance and errors 
of diet or improper exposures, bring upon themselves 
dyspepsia or an inflammation of the lungs. No moral 
gailt is incurred by the violation of the laws of one's 
physical being while he remains in ignorance of the law ; 
unless, indeed, he has shut his eyes against the light, or 
neglected to improve the means of acquiring knowledge 
which God has placed within his reach. He does not 
escape the physical penalty, however. The body is in- 
jured, and, through its mysterious connection with the 
mind, the intellect suffers. Nor does the injury stop 
here. The affections, appetites, and passions of the 
man are influenced materially by the state of the body ; 
and in swallowing alcoholic liquors all these are per- 
verted or inflamed according to the measure of the 
physical injury. 

Thus it will be seen that, when the mind of the Chris- 
tian man is enlightened on the subject, he can no more 
put alcoholic liquors in his stomach and keep a con- 
science void of offence than he could swallow daily a 
moderate dose of any other poison, expose himself need- 
lessly by breathing a tainted atmosphere, or take burn- 
ing coals in his hand. All the discussion as to whether 
it be a sin per se to driiik a glass of alcoholic wine, is a 
waste of breath. 



888 WHAT WE MUST TEACH. 

The answer to two simple questions will settle the 
matter. Is alcohol a poison at war with vitality ? If 

so, does Mr. A B know that fact ? If he is 

acquainted with that fact, he compromises his character 
as a Christian man, if he meddles with it; unless, in- 
deed, it be prescribed to him by some medical adviser 
as a medicinal agent in some abnormal condition of the 
system. 

Our work proper, as temperance reformers, is to con- 
vince all men that alcohol, the active principle even in 
pure wines and liquors, is an enemy to life ; that its 
influence interferes injuriously with the functions of 
the stomach, the brain — ^in short, all the important or- 
gans of the body ; and that its mischievous influence 
will extend by the operation of fixed laws to the mind, 
the social affections, and the moral sensibilities of the 
consumer. We must not stop here, but must call the 
attention of the people to the warfare which intoxicating 
liquors wage, through their mischievous influence on 
the human brain, upon agriculture, the manufacturing 
interest, commerce, education, civil government, and 
religion ; and we must strongly and sternly appeal to 
the consciences of all who have been enlightened on the 
subject, and demand their active cooperation in the work 
of removing the scourge. In all our efforts we must bear 
in mind constantly that the law primarily violated by 
the use of intoxicating liquors is a physical law. This 
we must constantly teach, and as constantly urge, that 
the first and manifest duty of men concerning it is to 
practice abstinence — personal, rigid abstinence — for the 
same reason, primarily, that we should abstain from the 
use of arsenic, corrosive sublimate, opium, chloroform, 



FOUNDATIONS AND CONNECTIONS. 389 

or prussic acid. In the light of those truths, it will not 
be difficult for any man of ordinary understanding to 
perceive the true relation of temperance, or the doctrine 
and practice of abstinence fr4)m intoxicating liquors, to 
Christianity, the church, the ministry, religious revivals, 
or any other interest of society or class of men. 



Foundations and Connections. 

Is it right or safe to use alcoholic liquors as a drink ? 
Innate consciousness will not help us here. To enable 
us to answer that question, we must have learned, either 
from experience, observation, or study, the effects of 
such drinking upon the physical constitution of man ; 
for if any law be violated by such drinking, it is prima- 
rily a law pertaining to life and health, and a knowledge 
of those laws is not, with men, intuitive, but acquired. 
Now, here is just where the difficulty lies, in reference 
to this great and beneficent work of reform. 

The knowledge acquired by a long habit of drinking, 
comes, alas ! too late in a vast majority of cases ; for 
the nervous system has, by the previous use of the drug, 
been diseased, and will often clamor, while life lasts, for 
the presejit relief afforded by the destroying agent. We 
therefore wish to induce our young men to abstain from 
all use of intoxicating elements ; but we do not wish 
them to learn the folly and danger of such use by per- 
sonal experience. But how else are they to learn the 
saving, restraining truth ? Will you point them to the 
cases of A, B, or C, who have become drunkards and 



390 FOUNDATIONS AND CONNECTIONS. 

are ruined ? They will point you to D, E, or F, who 

have drank for many years, and are still esteemed gen- 
tlemen, perhaps Christians. Talk until you are hoarse, 
of the extreme poverty, vice, crime, and moral degrada- 
tion of men through drink, and they will answer, they 
are taught to answer by thousands of Christian gentle- 
men, some professors of colleges, and a few of our rev- 
erend clergy, that all that is justly chargeable to excess 
in the use of the drink ; and, as each young man deems 
himself capable of avoiding excess, your argument does 
not reach him, and he continues to follow the teachings 
of those who by example and precept, declare to him 
that he may drink in moderation, at the demand of fash- 
ion or inclination, without sin or special danger. Now 
here is a work to be done which fierce denunciation of 
drunkenness and the liquor traffic, nor startling word- 
pictures of accomplished ruins, nor appeals to conscience, 
or self-respect, or fear, or all together, can perform ; 
for here are minds as yet unconvinced of the danger and 
the wrong of drinking alcoholic liquors, if excess he 
avoided^ and they intend to avoid excess. 

The truths of science, the ascertained relations of al- 
coliolic liquors to the physical organizations of men, 
must now come to the front and fight our battle for us, 
or victory can not be ours. The moment these relations 
are fairly comprehended and appreciated, your way is 
clear for effective appeals to the judgment — to Chris- 
tian principle, if parties possess it, to native benevolence, 
to educated conscience, to interest, affection, and fear. 
But while there is wanting in those we address a knowl- 
edge of fundamental truths, your other measures and 
grounds of appeal are as ineffective, with logical minds, 



AND CONSEQUENT FEEBLENESS. 391 

with thinking, educated men, as would be an assault on 
Fortress Monroe with caTalry or infantry, before heavy 
shot and shell had made breaches in its walls. Every 
thing in its place and season. Iron-work, paint, varnish, 
and cushions are essential to a fine carriage ; but before 
these, there must be wheels, thills, and a body : cube 
root and equations, by all means ; but before these, sub- 
traction and multiplication. Buttons ? yes, certainly, 
but a coat first. 

But we shall be told, perhaps, that the verdict of 
science is not sufficiently settled on this question to af- 
ford us a reliable basis. Then we have none which will 
answer our purpose. If it be not proved conclusively 
that alcohol is at war with the principle of vitality in 
man, we are all afloat, and can only argaie the question 
of drink or no drink as one of policy, or of Christian 
expediency, which few but conscientious Christians will 
be governed by ; and this side of the millcnni an we 
can have no hope of reaching controlling majorities. 



Starvation, and. Consequent Feebleness. 

Until the temperance men of our country to whom 
God has given large wealth and extensive influence shall 
show their respect for the cause by assigning to it its 
proper place among the great benevolent enterprises of 
the age, and sustaining it, not only by their example, 
their words, their prayers, and their votes, but also by 
their charities, in the same manner and to an equal 
extent to which they sustain other enterprises not a whit 
more needful or worthy, the cause will languish. As it 
is, they give to other enterprises in round numbers and 



392 STARVATION, AND CONSEQUENT FEEBLENESS. 

to temperance in fractions. So strange is this infatua- 
tion that we have known scores who, for a quarter of a 
century^ declared publicly, again and again, their devo- 
tion to the cause and their belief that its triumph would 
secure untold blessings to the country and the world, 
and then crown all by bequeathing to the missionary 
society ten thousand, to some college another ten thou- 
sand, to the Bible society five thousand, to the tract 
society five thousand perhaps, and so on, and to the 
treasury of the telnperance cause not one cent. 

When will this great enterprise, while it is thus, be 
able to command, to an adequate extent, the educated 
talent of the country to present its claims to the people ? 
The liberality of a few good and wise men, here and 
there, constitute noble exceptions to the rule, and bring 
out, by contrast, in bolder relief the mistaken and kill- 
ing parsimony of the masses even of our Christian rich 
men. Had the earnest and devoted but mistaken friends 
of this cause, who have wealth in abundance, treated it 
for the last fifteen years with the same liberality they have 
other enterprises^ the efficiency of the National, and of 
every State organization, would have been increased 
ten-fold. 

Fellow-laborer, if God has given you wealth, you will 
some time think of making your will. If you shall 
therein give of your property to aid other enterprises 
and nothing to the teniperance cause, let us respectfully 
suggest that you tell why in an explanatory note. If 
nothing more suitable shall occur to you, you may copy 
the following words, and fold them up with that impor- 
tant instrument, your will : 

" In this, my last will and testament, I have made 



SLIGHTLY INTOXICATED. 393 

bequests of my property to all the enterprises of the 
age which I considered worthy of special support. As, 
when I have passed away, some may wonder that I gave 
nothing to the temperance cause, which they heard me 
so often extol while living, I hereby inform them, that I 
meant simply to pay the cause a pleasant compliment, 
which cost nothing, but considered it utterly unworthy 
of any more substancial support." 



Slightly Intoxicated. 

" The New Haven Palladium tells a horrible story of brutality to 
a wife, to the following effect: Alexander McCrady went with his 
wife from Plymouth to Waterbury, to pass Christmas. On the way 
home they quarreled, and McCrady, who was slightly intoxicated, 
seized his wife and threw her out of the wagon, breaking both bones 
of her leg below the knee. He then told her she must walk the rest 
of the way; but the poor woman being unable to rise, he got out, 
and fell to beating and kicking her. He finally threw her into the 
wagon, and on arriving home, threw her into the yard, where she 
lay nearly insensible, while with a knife he cut off every particle of 
her clothing. He then tied a rope around her and drew her under 
a shed, where he left her with a parting kick — stabled unci fed his 
horse, and went to bed. We live in a Christian land !" 

The Christianity of the land will not prevent the rep- 
etition of such brutal conduct while men continue to 
drink intoxicating liquors. Comparatively few drink 
that they may be brutal. Occasionally an individual 
ivishes to commit an act from which his better nature 
revolts, and he drinks with the purpose to silence the 
admonitions of conscience, blunt his moral sensibilities, 
and enable him to do, without compunction or shrinking, 
a deed of blood. Thus did Strang, at Albany, many 
years since, when he would murder Whipple ; and such 



S94 SLIGHTLY INTOXICATED. 

cases are by no means rare. Most crimes are, however, 
committed when men have reached, unintentionally^ the 
stage of madness and bewilderment. 

Gentlemen who drink for a spree, as they call it, to 
feel jolly, for the fun and frolic of the thing, or for tlie 
narcotic effect of the third stage, to drown care, or lessen 
a keen sense of obligation to themselves, their families, 
tlieir creditors, their country, or their maker, God, do 
not study the subject as they ought, before trying so 
perilous an experiment. Will they allow us hereby to 
instruct them that, in a thorough spree or a drunk reg- 
ular, there are three stages ? 

The first is a stage of excitement, wherein the party 
is generally disposed to mirth. He laughs, sings, shouts, 
and is boisterous. The last stage of the regular drunk 
is marked by a disposition to coma, or sleepiness, mental 
stupor, generally with an indisposition to move, almost 
a total loss, for the time being, of the mental and moral 
faculties, and such imperfect use of his muscles that he 
reels and staggers, and perhaps falls, if he attempts to 
walk. It is in neither the first nor the third stage that 
crime is committed, or such brutal deeds are done as 
that above described ; but in the second stage, wherein 
the mirth is ended, and the stage of stupor is not yet 
reached. Just there is an intermediate stage wherein 
all the mental and moral faculties are in a state of con- 
fusion, not as yet paralyzed or suspended, as in the stage 
of narcotism, but confused, a stage of insanity or mental 
bewilderment, during which the kindest-hearted man 
of your acquaintance may kill his wife, child, parent, or 
most intimate and best beloved friend. 

It is in that second stage of drunkenness that nine- 



TEMPERANCE AND THE DOCTORS. 395 

tenths of our murders are committed. Reynolds was 
evidently in that stage when he killed Townsend, Cham- 
bers when he shot Voorhies, and in that stage the brutal 
deed above described was done. Read the above sad 
story, dear reader, in the light of the foregoing com- 
ments, and see what was the condition of McCrady when 
he committed that terrible crime ; a crime, in the pro- 
duction of which every supporter of the drinking system 
and liquor traffic was a party. 



Temperance and the Doctors. 

" In what state of mind did the man die ?" asked a 
gentleman of a Christian brother who, the day previous, 
had spent some time with a dying friend. 

" I cannot tell you anything about his state of mind, 
whether cheered by Christian hopes or otherwise," said 
the friend ; "for he- was for the last twenty-four hours 
of his life completely intoxicated by the large quantity 
of liquor given him, with a view to support him in his 
sinking condition ; and," added the gentleman, who was 
a faithful and devoted Christian, and often in the cham- 
bers of the sick to speak words of comfort and Christian 
counsel to the suffering, " I cannot, these days^ get any 
comfort or do any good by visiting the sick and the dy- 
ing, for a large portion of them die drunk. So much 
brandy is given them that the feeble brain reels under 
its influence, and they have no realizing sense of their 
condition." 

That was no fancy sketch. Few patients, under the 
care of the majority of our physicians, are permitted to 
die from the effects of incurable disease alone. The 



6\jb TEMPERANCE AND THE DOCTORS. 

powerful anaesthetic, alcohol, is permitted to have a hand 
in the extinction of vitality. 

It is not, of course, given for that purpose ; but here, 
as elsewhere, the " mocker" does work he was not com- 
missioned to do. Too many of our physicians disbelieve, 
as yet, the grand truth, stated by Dr. T. K. Chambers, 
of England. He says, " To recapitulate, we think that 
the evidence, so far as it has yet gone, sJiows the action 
of alcohol upon life to he consistent and uniform in all its 
phases, and to be always exhibited OjS an arrest of vitality.''^ 

The distinguised chemist, Professor Silliman the elder, 
once remarked to me, while conversing on the subject 
of the temperance reform, in which he was deeply inter- 
ested, that, whatever the doctors might say, "Alcohol 
was closely related in its chemical composition and in- 
fluence to chloroform and ether." The French class 
the three articles together under the general term of 
anesthetics. Who would think of administering chlo- 
roform or ether to a sinking patient as a restorative? 

Anassthetics are valuable when we have an important 
surgical operation to perform ; and why ? Because they 
paralyze the nervous system. They kill, for the time 
being, one of the functions of living human beings, 
namely, the power to feel ; but they do something more, 
it seems. Dr. Hamilton, medical inspector of the 
United States Army, while admitting the great value 
of those articles in surgical cases, in lessening suffering, 
says, " Anaesthetics (alcohol is one of them) produce 
certain effects upon the system which tend to prevent/' 
union hy the first intention, (the immediate healing of 
wounds without the formation of pus,) and consequently 
they must be regarded as, indirectly, promoting suppu- 



TEMPERANCE AND THE DOCTORS. 397 

ration, secondary hemorrhage, erysipelas, and hospital 
gangrene." But why do they do all this ? The only 
answer is to be found in the words of Dr. Chambers, as 
quoted above. They " arrest vitality." Yet our doctors 
prescribe it to the feeble and sinking with the view to 
promote vitality. 

Although contradicted by facts all around us, a major- 
ity of physicians still hold to the notion, and inculcate 
it by their remarks in the sick-room and elsewhere, that 
alcohol possesses the power to support a feeble patient, 
not by its present or momentary effect as a stimulant or 
irritant, but for days and even weeks. Hence its pre- 
scription in fevers of low type, and hence too its prescrip- 
tion for nursing mothers, a prescription of which any 
physician ought to be ashamed. But nursing a strong 
and vigorous child, it is often said, makes a heavy 
draught on the mother. Granted ; and therefore you 
should look well to her nutrition. If a hearty breakfast 
does not give her needful support to the dinner hour, 
beat an egg thoroughly, add to it half a pint of new 
milk, with sugar and a little spice to give it a pleasant 
flavor, and let that be taken at ten o'clock, and a similar 
draught at four P. M. in addition to the ordinary three 
meals, being careful that all the food taken shall be rich 
in the elements, of nutrition, and easy of digestion. 
Fresh pork, smoked meats, sausages, and crude vegeta- 
bles, as cabbage, beets, etc., should be avoided. If the 
digestion be faulty, search . diligently for the cause of 
trouble. It may be too much care about her infant or 
older children, if she have them ; about domestic affairs 
which go wrong through some one's neglect, possibly 
that of her husband in not providing competent help. 



838 TEMPERANCE AND THE DOCTORS. 

It may be that she is suffering (thousands are) from 
continual anxiety lest want should be at her door, while 
her husband is wickedly wasting his earnings in dissipa- 
tion, in the continued use of intoxicating liquors, or 
burning up a small income in cigars at ten cents each. 
It may be a continual worry of mind induced by the 
presence of an unfeeling, coarse, crabbed nurse, who is 
unfit to nurse aught save a feminine bear, and even at 
that her bad temper would be infectious, and spoil the 
disposition of otherwise respectable cubs. We have seen 
some such nurses during our professional life. It may 
be that the food of the mother is not well prepared ; 
the meats are tough, the bread heavy, the toast burned, 
and the butter rancid. Who would not have indigestion 
under such circumstances ? We repeat, find out the 
cause of the indigestion, and remove it, -rather than 
cover up the trouble for the time being by drugging the 
nerves of the stomach with ale or whisky. If a local 
stimulant be needed, which will rarely happen if the 
foregoing directions be attended to, half a teaspoonful 
of Brown's essence of ginger" is far better than a glass 
of ale, though nursing mothers who have been accus- 
tomed to use ale will probably insist that the ale is best, 
for reasons which I will not specify. A good lady some 
time since asked me if I thought it likely that the 
drinking of ale or milk-punch by a nursing mother 
would affect the child. "Of course, madam/ I replied'. 
" But why did you ask the question ?" This wao her 
answer : " Why, all the while my daughter followed the 
prescription of her doctor and drank milk-punch, we 
could scarcely keep the little one awake, even while 
dressing it. It slept nearly all the time, day and night. '^ 



THE LONGEVITY OF OUR TEMPERANCE FATHERS. 399 

" Yes, madam," I replied, " and it was precisely the 
same sleep that the poor drunkard enjoys, when we find 
him stretched by the fence or on the sidewalk." Will 
such an influence, brought to bear for weeks on the del- 
icate brain of an infant, have any effect upon its future 
life ? Reader, ponder that question. 



The Longevity of our Temperance Fathers. 

" With long life will I satisfy him, and show him my salvation.'* 

Psalm xci. 

In Chapter XIII, on page 188, 1 have spoken of the 
longevity of our early temperance reformers as quite 
remarkable. 

At the time that chapter was written, I could not 
justify my statement by facts as extensively as I desired. 
I am now able to give a pretty full catalogue of names, 
familiar as household words to men who have but a tol- 
erable knowledge of the history of the temperance enter- 
prise. Against the names of such as have gone to their 
reward, I have placed the age to whicli they severally 
attained, so far as I am now able. Brethren who can 
aid me in filling the blanks, will confer a favor by doing 
so, that I may perfect the list for future editions of this 
work, should they be called for. In my catalogue are 
the names of some who still live and who have lost none 
of their zeal for the advancement of a cause they early 
espoused. Can any class, profession, association, trade, 
or calling, in this country, show a record of its promi- 
nent men or leaders which for average length of life will 
compare with the following ? If so, let it be produced : 



400 THE LONGEVITY OF OUR TEMPERANCE FATHERS. 

Justin Edwards, . - . _ gg 

Rev. Nathaniel Hewitt, - - - 77 

Lyman Beecher, D. D., - - - - 88 

Rev. Calvin Cliapin, - - - 80 

Daniel Frost, Esq., - - - « 77. 

Rev. John Marsh, - - - - 80 

Jonathan Kittredge, Esq., - - - 71 

John Tappan, - - - . 84 
Rev. William Colyer. 

L. M. Sargent, - - - - 81 

Reuben Diamond Mussey, - - 86 

Prest. Nott, - - - - - 93 

Prest. Heman Humphrey, « -» - 83 

E. C. Delavan, - - - - _ 79 

Gerrit Smith — still living, - - . - 75 

William Goodell — still living, - - - 79 

Judge Daggett, Conn., - - . 87 

Chancellor Walworth, - - - - 78 

Rev. John Pierpont, - - - 81 

Rev. Dr. Wayland, - - - - 69 
Christian Keener, Baltimore, Md. 

Nathaniel Emmons, D. D., - - - 95 

Rev. Dr. Beeman, - - - - 86 

Wilham Lloyd Garrison — still living, - 67 

Joshua Leavitt — still living, - - - 77 

Hon. Lewis Cass, - - - - 84 

Aristarchus Champion, - - - 88 
Gen. Riley — still living. 

Rev, Thomas P. Hunt — still living, - - 75 
Gen. John H. Cocke, Virginia. 

Pres. Hitchcock, - - - - 71 

Rev. Dr. Patten, New Haven, - - - 73 

Rev. Thomas Williams, R. L, still living, - 84 

Hermon Camp, N. Y., still living, - - 88 
Judge Foote, N. Y., still living. 

Arthur Tappan, - - - - 79 
Billey Grey. 

Rev. Jacob Ide — still living, - - - 82 



FORM OP ORGANIZATION. 401 



FoHM OF Organization for Local Temperance Societies. 

PREAMBLE. 

Whereas, The formation of societies pledged to absti- 
nence from the use of intoxicating liquors has, with 
the blessing of God, largely contributed to lessen in our 
Country the amount of intemperance and its attendant 
evils, and as we desire to perpetuate and render effective 
in this community, every instrumentality which may 
guard the present and the rising generation from the 
guilt and woes of drunkenness, it has seemed good to 
us, citizens of to associate ourselves 

together for the purpose suggested, and for our guide and 
government we adopt the following 

CONSTITUTION. 

Article I. This Society shall be known as the 
Temperance Alliance or Union. 

Art. II. Tiie Officers of this Association shall con- 
sist of a President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, 
and Councillors ; who together, shall consti- 

tute the Executive Board of this Association ; and these 
officers sliall possess the powers, and perform the duties 
usually attached to the offices they hold, and shall sev- 
erally discharge their official functions until their suc- 
cessors shall have been duly appointed. 

Art. III. The regular meetings of this Association 
shall be holden on the of every month, 

and the annual election of officers shall take place on 
the of 



402 FORM OF ORGANIZATION. 

Art. lY. Within the period of one week after the 
annual election, the retiring officers shall deliver to 
their successors in office, all books, records, moneys, and 
property of every description belonging to the Society. 

Art. V. The members of this Association pledge 
to each other, and to the world, that they will abstain 
from the use, as a beverage, of all intoxicating liquors, 
that they will not manufacture or traffic in them to be 
thus used ; that they will discountenance such manufac- 
ture, traffic, and use by others, and that they will make 
direct and persevering efforts to extend the principles 
and blessings of temperance, and to recover the intem- 
perate to habits of sobriety. 

Art. YI. A further condition of membership in this 
Society shall be the payment to its treasurer, at each 
regular meeting, by each member, of such sum as he or 
she may set against his or her name at the time of sign- 
ing this constitution. 

Art. YII. It shall be the duty of each adult member 
of this Association to report to its Secretary, or o ''- i- 
of its Councillors, any known violation of its pledges ; 
and such officer shall immediately, without exposing to 
the public the name of the offender, cause him or her 
to be visited by some member of the Association, and 
kindly and earnestly exhorted to a confession of the 
fault, and a renewal of his or her obligations to the So- 
ciety. For a refusal, to comply with the terms suggested, 
and a persistent violation of its pledge on the part of 
tlie offending member during the period of 
his or her name shall be stricken from the records of 
this Association ; but in no case shall the name of an 



FORM OF ORGANIZATION. 403 

individual be expunged from our records until persever- 
ing efforts shall have been made for his or her recovery. 
Art. YIII. This Constitution may be altered or 
amended, at any regular meeting of the Society, by a 
vote of two-thirds of the members present, previous no- 
tice having been given of the proposed alteration at 
some regular meeting of the Society. 

A strict compliance with the provisions of the sixth 
article can alone render the association influential, or 
save it from disgrace and ultimate disorganization. 
Funds must be had, and can a more reasonable and 
equitable method be conceived for the pecuniary support 
of the Society, than the one adopted? Suppose a so- 
ciety formed under this constitution with two hundred 
members. Each monthly meeting would put into its 
treasury a specific and considerable sum. Now your 
officers have something, to work with. We must either 
tax ourselves to break down the liquor system, or be 
taxed roundly to repair the mischiefs — support the pau- 
pers and punish the crimes it will cause. 

The regular meeting, whether monthly or semi- 
monthly, should be of an educational and high charac- 
ter, so as to command the respect of all. The demand 
which will thus be created for instructors or lecturers, 
will be met, when it shall be understood that our societies 
are able and willing to pay for instruction as well as 
associations of a purely religious or literary character. 
The exercises at some of the regular meetings should 
consist of short speeches of ten or fifteen minutes each 
from members, either bringing out local facts and com- 
menting on them, or discussing some important phase 



404 CONCLUSION. 

of the question which they may have been recently in- 
vestigating. It may be objected, that, to organize on 
this plan and sustain such organizations, involves sys- 
tematic labor. True, and no association can exist and 
thrive without it ; and if the professed friends of tem- 
perance are not willing to labor and make some pecuni- 
ary sacrifices to achieve a success, they do not deserve 
success, and will have no cause to complain if their 
families, friends, and all worldly interests shall be for- 
ever taxed and tortured by the curse of drunkenness 
and its concomitants. 

Conclusion. 

^Reader, if you have careflilly studied the preceding 
pages and believe the facts stated, you now know just as 
well what should be done to check the evil of intemper- 
ance wliich may be prevailing in your community, as you 
know how to warm your dwelling, cool a heated surface, 
or check the growth of weeds in your garden. The 
moral and Christian men of your vicinity (I hope there 
are many such) have it in their power to institute meas- 
ures, which, if steadily supported, will assuredly lessen 
among your people the consumption of intoxicating 
liquors and the manifold evils which ever attend their 
use. Tliese measures are simple, safe, and in no wise 
conflict with the nicest sense of honor, of Christian ob- 
ligation, or loyalty to one's country. They honor the 
laws of God, for they enjoin obedience to them. They 
ire auxiliary to the Christian church, for they inculcate 
self-denial for one's own good and the good of others. 
No other system of measures known to us has ever 
checked to any considerable extent this terrible evil in 



CONCLUSION. 405 

any age or part of the world. You see men all around 
you hurrying to ruin through the use of alcoholic poi- 
sons. You know from observation that in the case of 
such you have nothing to hope for until their resolves 
to live a better life, formed many times and broken as 
often, shall take the form of a specific solemn pledge to 
abstain entirely hereafter from the use of strong drinks, 
and until that pledge be recorded in the presence of their 
fellow-citizens, so that they shall feel themselves com- 
mitted to the right side in this great conflict, a point of 
immense importance. You certainly know that men 
who attempt to break the strong cords ot artificial appe- 
tite and habit need social, moral, and often physical 
helps, which they are not likely to find except in a so- 
ciety organized especially to afford them. Churches do 
not undertake the business of general education. That 
work is assigned to schools, academies, and colleges. 
Banks do not often engage in the business of insurance, 
or insurance companies in building railroads, or railroad 
companies in spinning cotton. Special organizations 
are needed to accomplish important and special results. 

Train up the young in Sabbath Schools, and without 
temperance societies to guard them as they advance in 
years, against the influence of social drinking, thousands 
who at twelve sing the sweet Sabbath School hymns will 
at twenty join in the ribald songs of the bar-room or the 
social drinking party. 

There are just as many ways to prevent it as there are 
to prevent the spread of small pox. One. No more. 
Neither in His Word or His Providence has God ever 
revealed more than one certain preventive of drunken- 



406 CONCLUSION. 

ness — that is the pledge and practice of total abstinence 
from air intoxicating liquors. 

Neither Noah or Lot where pledged to abstinence or 
practiced it. They both sinned and suffered through 
drink. 

The Nazarites and Rechabites were pledged and prac- 
ticed abstinence, and thej were safe. The Corinthian 
Christians were not pledged to abstinence, nor did they 
practice it. Some of them fell into sin through drink. 

The church in this country for the first quarter of the 
present century was not pledged to nor did it practice 
abstinence. And it was almost decimated in its male 
membership by this scourge and curse of the earth. 
The church now is safe from this destroyer so far as it is 
pledged to and practices abstinence — not a step farther. 
That the practice of abstinence will not generally pre- 
vail where men are not pledged to it all history shows. 
That there will be no general system oi pledging without 
the existence of special organizations to promote that 
end, reader, you know. The matter may therefore be 
summed up thus : Without organizations, having a mem- 
bership pledged to abstinence, no considerable check can 
be put to the terrible evil of intemperance. With the 
use of those means, blessed of God in all ages, we can 
check it. Do not these facts settle the question of per- 
sonal duty ? What remains now but for you and such 
of your fellow-citizens as you can induce to join with 
you, to set up a standard in your community at once 
against the common enemy ? Lamentations over the 
evil, however sincere, or half-hearted resolutions to do 
something in some way^ at some future time, will avail 
naught. Prayers to God for help will avail naught, im- 



CONCLUSION. 407 

accompanied ly efforts of your own of the right kind in 
the right direction and persevered in. We may be quite 
sure that God will work no miracle to relieve us from 
the ravages of a dreadful scourge, which we have the 
power but not the luill to arrest. To secure the blessings 
of temperance to your community will tax your resolu- 
tion^ your time^ your purse, and your patience. Do you 
anticipate the possession of any great blessing in this 
life at a less price ? 

If you adopt the measures suggested, resolutely, 
promptly, and persevere in their employment, you will 
not labor in vain. You will secure a personal bless- 
ing, you will bless your family, (if you have one,) the 
community around you, the Christian church, our be- 
loved country, and through its influence elevated and 
purified, you will bless the world. If these incentives 
are insufficient to induce right action now, you may ere 
long find others in the general demoralization and ruin 
which intemperance will create around you, in which you, 
or some of those dear to you, shall in some way certainly 
he involved. In the preparation of the preceding pages 
I have, with a solemn sense of my obligations to truth, 
to God, and my country, sought to do my duty. Reader, 
will you set about doing youxs X 






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